Research and Evaluation
We lead projects that redirect power, transform relationships, and create radical change.
Tailored to communities’ needs, we bring values-driven frameworks and leverage a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods to center the voices of those most impacted in co-creating solutions to complex problems. We turn our research and evaluation findings into action through legislative advocacy, community-based action toolkits, and the redesign of organizational and systems policies and programming.
Research & Evaluation Projects
Our approach to research and evaluation results in more robust and holistic data, more effective policy and practice solutions, and more engaged community action. We work with…
directly impacted communities to create new knowledge, advocate for change and build their leadership
institutional partners to fill the gaps in their understanding from those who are closest to the problem, so they can develop effective and lasting solutions
We do this by bringing community and stakeholders together—in a variety of strategic ways—to rebalance power, collect and make meaning of data, and translate that information into specific changes to policy and practice.
In that process, we:
leverage our technical skills in mixed methods evaluation, quantitative surveys, qualitative focus group and semi-structured interviews, and other ideas from community members to identify actionable solutions to complex problems
model and cultivate relational skills that build organizational capacity and create accountable, intentional spaces where community members can lead and discomfort and conflict are embraced as avenues to lasting transformation
uplift new realities and stories from impacted communities that disrupt dominant narratives and make space for new organizational practices and more equitable futures
RIA Projects
Read more and access reports from our current and past projects!
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Research in Action is excited to announce a new project with Exodus Lending, a non-profit organization that works with financially excluded Minnesotans to advance economic justice through consumer lending, community organizing, and advocacy.
Through its Refinancing Loan and Resiliency Loan programs, EL provides 0% interest, character-based small-dollar credit in partnership with trusted community organizations, while organizing to dismantle predatory lending practices statewide.
To assess its current model and chart a path toward expansion, EL has contracted with Research in Action to conduct a community-centered evaluation of its program.
Stay tuned for the report in 2027!
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With funding from the Bush Foundation, the Equity in Action Way Foundation has contracted with Research in Action to lead an initiative to develop a first-of-its-kind assessment tool to better understand how structural and systemic violence impacts Black women girls, and femmes—and how public systems can be held accountable. Through our Equity in Action model, the initiative will center the leadership and lived experiences of Black women, girls, and femmes to co-create a tool that will:
Examine how Black women, girls and femmes perceive their susceptibility to violence
Measure their confidence in state-funded programs to offer protection and support
Assess the capacity of key state agencies to provide responsive, effective services
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In 2021, the Bush Foundation awarded $100 million to seed two community trust funds for Black and Indigenous individuals facing wealth disparities due to historic racial injustice. Nexus Community Partners (Nexus) is responsible for distributing a $50 million community trust fund to Black individuals living in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Nexus contracted with Research in Action to lead the research and evaluation of the fund and its impact, as well as co-convene an Advisory Council of Black folks as partners in designing the evaluation plan. Through that process the council co-created shared definitions of key terms for the project and set the foundation for the long-term evaluation.
Read our reports:
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Research in Action (RIA) partnered with members of the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to conduct a landscape assessment on barriers to Black and Indigenous populations accessing and using medications for opioid use disorder (MOUDs). With this landscape assessment, MDH hopes to directly address community-identified barriers and identify intervention points for future work on MOUD use and access.
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The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation partnered with Research in Action to connect with directly impacted residents to understand how its East Metro Pulse survey reflects their experiences. Community members also identified how they would like to see the data used in ways that are equitable, transparent, and accountable to community.
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Hennepin County, the NAACP, Village Arms, Adult Representation Services-Hennepin County, Harriet Tubman Center, and the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare are partnering with Research in Action to explore how to prevent family separation and develop systems that support the reunification of Black and Native families.
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Research in Action partnered with Constellation Lab (CoLab) to lead a study on solutions to poverty to enable communities to thrive. Working with Co-Lab staff and community organizations, RIA collaborated with youth and families with lived experiences of poverty to shift investments from philanthropy to align with the visions of directly impacted communities and end intergenerational poverty. -
The Racial Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (REIB) Department at the City of Minneapolis partnered with Research in Action to gain insights into the City department’s strengths, identify areas hindering progress, and make recommendations for improving both operational processes and workplace culture to advance racial equity work across the enterprise.
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Research in Action partnered with the West Side Community Organization (WSCO) to work with impacted community members to bring the historical displacement of the West Side Flats community into public memory and build collective strategy to prevent further displacement from the neighborhood.
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The Ramsey County Bail Reform Working Group (BRWG) aims to advance pretrial justice system transformation efforts, including reforming cash bail, decreasing the jail population, and developing alternative access to court. Research in Action was contracted to aid in community engagement and ensure community members were involved in the development of policies and tools implemented by Ramsey County.
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The Workgroup on Expediting Rental Assistance (WERA) partnered with Research in Action to conduct a literature review and to engage community to inform the WERA’s final legislative recommendations.
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Research in Action worked with the McKnight Foundation to explore how artists define, advance, and practice justice in their work and what supports artists need to continue that justice-oriented work. This project used the experiences shared by artists who are seeking, attaining, and participating in McKnight’s artists' programming to help shape programmatic change, create new supports, and assist the foundation and broader philanthropy in redefining measures of success and impact.
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By creating the Missing and Murdered African American Women’s Task Force in 2021, the Minnesota Legislature became the first U.S. state to dedicate resources to investigate and to consider the measures necessary to reduce and prevent violence against Black women and girls. RIA was contracted to facilitate the Task Force and create a final report.
Read “I Had to Advocate for Myself: Insights on the Safe Harbor Initiative and Sexual Exploitation”
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Research in Action worked with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity on its Engaging Foundational Black Households project. Beginning in fall 2020, the 8-month evaluation and assessment process analyzed how well Habitat’s homeownership and financial coaching programs have served foundational Black households (defined as U.S. descendants of enslaved African people) and how it can be improved.
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The Heading Home Minnesota Funders Collaborative (HHMFC or Collaborative) partnered with Research in Action to conduct the initial grounding work to listen, learn, and gauge potential next steps of the HHMFC’s efforts in 2022-2023.
Subsequently, Research in Action worked with the Heading Home Minnesota Funders Collaborative to identify strategic stakeholders; design statewide regional accountability tables to move toward long-term housing stability that provides fair, just, and equitable housing for all Minnesotans; and curate a legislative agenda that includes the housing system priorities and policies determined by communities with lived experience around housing instability and homelessness.
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In the fall of 2020, Research in Action was contracted by the Pohlad Family Foundation to develop a strategic plan and implementation plan to guide this new funding initiative aimed at advancing racial justice for the Black community. The RIA-led Equity in Action process supported the Foundation’s development of a community-led vision for racial justice as it learns, plans, develops and creates the infrastructure needed to execute its own data-informed racial justice work.
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The Time of Reckoning, Healing, Listening, and Action was a series of community engagement and healing justice sessions that culminated in a Black-led town hall and policy action roundtables focusing on the criminal justice system and its collateral consequences on Black people in Minnesota.
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Hope Community Inc., Girls Empowerment Movement (GEMS) Youth Action Research Team led by Dr. Brittany Lewis aimed to empower young high school age Black girls through purposeful community action informed by research questions that are relevant to their daily lives.
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The MN Trust Black Women and Girls Town Hall was established in 2018, after Dr. Brittany Lewis, The Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, the African American Leadership Forum, and Hope Community, Inc., partnered with the national African American Policy Forum (AAPF) to bring the Breaking the Silence Town Hall Series to Minneapolis and St. Paul. Held at the Walker Art Center on Saturday, April 13th this first of its kind congressional style event served over 200 community participants featuring four issue-focused panels that amplified the voices of Black women and girls in the areas of housing, education, criminal justice, and health and wellness for the purpose of highlighting policy solutions on behalf of Black women and girls.