Empowerment evaluation for violence prevention public health programs.

The formative evaluation consultation and systems technique (FORECAST) approach to evaluating complex community programs is described as an empowerment evaluation strategy. First, empowerment evaluation is defined and contrasted with more-traditional approaches, such as experimental and quasi-experimental designs. Then FORECAST is described, illustrating how it was applied in four community projects. One of the projects is used to demonstrate the application of FORECAST evaluation in programs addressing the prevention of first-time male perpetration of sexual violence.