After reading the information provided within the chapter, discuss the important benefits of a partnership.

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The Answer is There are several reasons that we actively collaborate with partners on applied research and evaluation. First, we value working with others who share our concerns about evaluation and want to improve their programs and communities. Second, the questions and issues we address and the efforts we evaluate are dealt with more effectively when we draw from our partners' different (often complementary) perspectives, skill sets, and experiences. Because the responsiveness and effectiveness of our systems, organizations, and programs depend on a host of factors that no single individual can fully understand and no one discipline can frame adequately, let alone change, it is critical to collaborate effectively with community partners who bring different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Doing so maximizes our collective understanding of the program and its context and enables us to be more effective in helping it improve.
In our work, the partnership generally involves a combination of academics/researchers/evaluators and community stakeholders (not surprising because we are academics working in the community). To us, the work itself benefits (and its potential impact grows) when a partnership approach is employed. These partnerships benefit from the integration of the different perspectives and capacities of the partners. In turn, strong partnerships can yield (a) enhanced quality and availability of data, (b) questions that reflect both science and practice, (c) methods applied effectively within contexts and in work with specific populations, and (d) more useful science and more effective practice.

After Reading the Information Provided Within the Chapter, Discuss the Important