The letters of CAP stand for three core values that guide all of our work: Collaborative, Accessible, and Professional. 

COLLABORATIVE, ACCESSIBLE, PROFESSIONAL

Collaborative: 

At CAP Consulting, we believe that projects and processes are strengthened by the collective wisdom of all stakeholders and by the many forms of knowledge that come from the community.  All of the individuals involved in a project have insight, expertise, and valuable contributions to make. We have found that diversity is a valuable resource that contributes to an effective evaluation or research project.   

In each evaluation or project in which we are involved we work with clients to identify all relevant stakeholders; that is, those individuals who can affect, or be affected by, the project or evaluation.  Stakeholders can be involved as a member of a decision-making body (e.g., steering committee) that helps oversee or guide a project or evaluation; as a participant in an advisory group providing input on methods, tools and processes;  or as respondents in key informant interviews or focus groups.  This collaboration results in a process that is transparent and evaluations and research projects that are utilization-focused, strengths-based, and provide results that are useable and meaningful to the stakeholders. 

Accessible:

To CAP Consulting, accessibility means three things. First, we are always accessible to the organizations and people with whom we work.  As a team we provide responsive, and affordable, consultation services.  Second, we prioritize ensuring that our methods, tools, and processes are accessible.  Through our collaboration and open communication with stakeholders, we explain methods and processes used throughout a project or evaluation and ensure that tools and measures are appropriate, easy to understand, and user-friendly.  Third, we ensure that the results and findings themselves are accessible.  Presentations and reports are geared to audiences, use plain language and are useful and easy to understand.  

Professional:

Both Karen and Judit hold masters' degrees in Community Psychology where their training included program evaluation, statistics, and social intervention and research.  They are both members of the Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) and adhere to the CES’s guidelines for ethical conduct.  Karen and Judit represent themselves and their skills honestly to all clients. We adhere to the program evaluation standards established by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation and adopted by the CES. These include utility standards (stakeholders find evaluation processes and products valuable), feasibility standards (evaluation effectiveness and efficiency), proprietary standards (evaluations are fair, legal and just), accuracy standards (evaluations are well designed and produce valid and reliable information), and accountability standards (evaluations are adequately documented and focused on improvement and accountability).  

Although our approach is always professional, it is also relaxed.  We work well with all stakeholders and put community members at ease.