Against this background, the growing interest in, and advocacy of, empowerment
models of evaluation (e.g., Fetterman 2000; Fetterman and Wandersman 2005) take on
special significance. A defining characteristic of empowerment philosophy is its
responsiveness to the perceived needs of disenfranchised and marginalized stakeholders,
including social-problems subjects. The voices of these stakeholders are more
likely to be heard directly when community-based techniques are appropriately used by
evaluators to surface them. Thus, the linking of an empowerment orientation to needs
assessment methodology might be conceptualized as Bassisted claimsmaking.^ That is,
an empowerment perspective vigorously advocates for the right of marginalized groups
to have their views communicated clearly and taken seriously by other, traditionally
more powerful, stakeholders.