The study argues that the value of arts-based interventions in peacebuilding and development is yet to be fully realised due to a paucity of effective monitoring and evaluation models. In a context of growing attention to the benefits of university community engagement to social change, this article reports on how social practice creative placemaking embedded in engaged scholarship can be assessed for efficiency and its effectiveness in giving salience to silenced and ‘unusual’ voices in the pursuit of social justice. We propose an effective monitoring and evaluation model that shows the change development processes and can track and attribute causality.