Creating With, Not For People: Theory of Change and Logic Models for Culturally Responsive Community-Based Intervention

Intervention scientists have used program theory-driven evaluation to design, implement, and assess the success of intervention programs for decades. However, interventions often are designed without the input of the community for which they are intended. The lack of incorporation of community members’ voices that participate in various intervention programs and the de-emphasis of systemic influences on program outcomes may decrease the extent to which participants experience intended positive outcomes. This often leads to interventions that are irrelevant at best and harmful at worst. Theory of change and logic models are two forms of theory-driven evaluation that can be used in tandem to incorporate community voices into program design and implementation while attending to systemic influences on the program. The following paper presents a stage model process for creating and utilizing both a theory of change and logic model for community-based intervention programs aiming to work with ethnically and racially diverse and immigrant populations.