The Community Participatory Evaluation Tool (CPET) is a rapid participatory method that can be used to develop indicators of children’s psychosocial well-being as part of a plan to support community level child protection and psychosocial support activities in accordance with local vision. To that end, it elicits community concepts of the optimal flow of development, as well as the coping mechanisms that families use to enable children to grow up well in “normal” times. The tool can then be used to measure progress toward the restoration of positive coping mechanisms, the identification and elimination of negative ones, as well as the degree to which children are able to meet developmental milestones over time. When given the opportunity to monitor and evaluate programs designed on the basis of their specifications, community members can help to ensure that program approaches are effective and to modify ineffective ones.

This document is a brief, practical guide to using the CPET during an emergency and afterwards. For a fuller understanding, consult the referenced article from which this method is derived, as well as the additional references footnoted below and at the end of the text.