Reparation Generation has always believed in the importance of evaluation and evidence-based data for real-time program improvement and for understanding and making the case for reparations. Our Black founders set out to create Reparations in Action models that build intergenerational wealth and help heal harm for Black American descendants of chattel slavery in the US. In 2021 no standardized inventory of indicators, questions, or scales existed for measuring reparative impacts. In response, RepGen created its own participatory action research design which centered participants as co-creators and co-learners.
RepGen uses surveys, interviews, and follow-up conversations to evaluate program impact. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods we capture nuanced participant experiences. When possible, we supplement individual data with relevant community-level data. This mixed-method approach enables real-time feedback, iterative improvements, and robust assessment of program effectiveness.
In July 2025, RepGen received an 18-month grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to initiate and to facilitate a Reparative Evaluation Community of Practice (RECOP). The RECOP is bringing together reparations program practitioners, participants, evaluation experts, and movement leaders to co-create a reparative evaluation framework that leverages existing research and builds new methodologies that are explicitly reparative, participatory, and actionable. We hope this framework will assist with the collection and analysis of the impacts of local, state and national reparations programs across the U.S.
Consistent with Reparation Generation’s “learn by doing” approach, in December of 2025, RECOP facilitated an interactive workshop titled “Measuring Repair” during the National Reparations Symposium in Evanston, Illinois. It was an opportunity to share its work on the reparative evaluation framework to date and have it informed by the larger reparations movement.
The session explored two basic questions facing reparations program evaluation, which RECOP had identified and discussed among itself during fall 2025:
- First, what qualities and characteristics define a “reparations program”?
- Second, what data is important to collect about reparations programs to further local, state and national reparations movements and policies?
More than 25 participants explored these two prompts in small affinity groups (e.g. policymakers and advocates, funders, program leaders, community members) and then shared their thoughts and questions with the full group. For many, it was the first time addressing the prospect through this reparative evaluation lens. Overall, the participants rated the workshop positively and a majority expressed interest in joining the broader RECOP network for future collaboration.
RECOP is also studying its own emergence as a Community of Practice. Early challenges have included reimagining how to openly share and protect “proprietary” details of reparations program models discussed within a community of practice, and to rethink the language used concerning the ownership of ideas and products developed as part of RECOP. Another challenge was observed during a “real-time” program consultation regarding RepGen’s HORT 3.0 evaluation design. While the activity generated multiple useful perspectives and new ideas, the experience felt more transactional than transformative for the RECOP participants.
Building on these and other activities and learnings from 2025, RECOP has a six month plan and work groups to continue emerging a reparative evaluative framework and a community of practice in-action.
To learn more about RECOP or get involved, contact us at [email protected]