Embedding evaluation capacity-building in graduate professional training: A stakeholder-engaged model for clinically oriented programs

Limited evaluation capacity among clinically trained behavioral health professionals continues to challenge program implementation, accountability, and sustainability. This article describes a stakeholder-engaged training model designed to build program evaluation capacity among graduate social work students preparing for behavioral health practice. Implemented within a clinical evaluation course, the model emphasizes scaffolded evaluation planning, logic model development, stakeholder consultation, and applied feasibility considerations. Students developed evaluation proposals for trauma-informed behavioral health interventions serving college populations through iterative engagement with university-based practitioners. Evidence of capacity-building was drawn from aggregated self-assessments, course artifacts, and reflective assignments collected as part of routine instructional practice. Descriptive evidence suggested increased evaluation literacy and evaluative reasoning, particularly in aligning program theory, outcomes, and feasible measurement strategies. The model demonstrates how evaluation capacity-building principles can be operationalized within clinically oriented graduate education under authentic service constraints. Implications for evaluation practice, professional training, and replication across applied disciplines are discussed.