Program Evaluation
Program evaluation is a structured process, designed to discover the effects of a program, policy, initiative, strategy, or activity. It is a set of methods used to learn the effectiveness and, for HELP, improve the program and amplify impact.
This process can consist of designing evaluation questions (questions to be answered about the effect or components of a program), choosing and applying methods (see below), analyzing and interpreting data/information, and writing or presenting findings/a report.
We use evaluation to learn the truth about a situation and strengthen programs so that they can better serve more of their target group, be it children, adults, families, and/or communities. Thus, we believe that program evaluation can ultimately better the holistic health of those receiving (and who can eventually receive) services. Because our ultimate goal is to enhance organizational functioning and effectively serve the community, we strive to be inclusive of the organization’s personnel and community members in the construction and implementation of our evaluations.
We have also developed our own, comprehensive evaluation model, which we implement in and with our target communities for free. Even though our services for certain communities are free, it comes at a “cost.” The organization must give its time and energy to the process.
HELP’s Evaluation Model
Our evaluation model is designed to:
- Move towards social justice
- Embrace and integrate a community’s culture
- Empower community members through including them in the evaluation
- Build the capacity of organizations to evaluate themselves through collaboration
Possible methods
From quantitative measures (e.g., surveys, instruments) to qualitative methods (e.g., interviews, focus groups), we apply multiple strategies to meet an organization’s and community’s needs. Specifically, we perform the following, depending on your goals:
- Monitoring and evaluation plan development and implementation
- Program development
- Process evaluation, program monitoring
- Evaluation of effectiveness
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Survey development
- Interview/focus group protocol development
- In-depth interviews (structured, semi-structured, and informal)
- Focus groups
- Observation
- Documentation/Material review
- Logic Modeling
- Evaluation capacity building
- Report writing
- Needs assessments
