The empowerment grid

Practical use

Evaluation allows both the participants to become aware of their achievements and the facilitators to have feedback on what they have learned in order to adapt their training support in this long process of empowerment. Empowerment can be broken down into three types of power :
– inner power
– the power of
– power with

These powers can be broken down and structured around four interdependent dimensions and feed into each other during the empowerment process (see table below) :
– Have
– Knowing
– Willingness
– Power

For each of these dimensions of empowerment, different tools can be used to collect information on the evolution of the person or group being supported.

This type of tool is particularly interesting when people take part in emancipatory training, i.e. training that aims to strengthen self-confidence as well as to provide technical knowledge.

The first step is to create a questioning grid. Starting from the dimensions of empowerment, you will select the criteria that are targeted by the training (self-confidence, speaking up, literacy, etc.).

For each of the criteria, you will formulate a proposal that allows you to measure the evolution of the person or group, on a scale ranging from 1 (impossible) to 5 (full capacity), at different moments of the training (at the beginning/after the training).

You can formulate as many proposals as the criteria targeted by the training courses, but be careful not to make the form too long !

It is advisable to administer this questionnaire at the beginning and at the end or after the training to measure the changes. If the person cannot read and write, you can suggest that they fill in the questionnaire together during a follow-up interview.