Planning The Program Evaluation
Introduction
Program evaluation is the process of seriously examining an implemented program. It involves collecting and analyzing data regarding the characteristics and activities of a program, monitors the progress, and communicates the results to the stakeholders, partners, and community. The purpose of the evaluation is to judge the program to improve its effectiveness and apprise the programming decisions (Antoinette & Leslie, 2012). The program evaluation focusses on the satisfaction of the individuals reached by the program by investigating the process of implementation and determining whether the program’s operations are as planned. Outcome evaluation estimates the extent of the program achieving its long term and short term outcomes of the plan (W. K. Kellogg Foundation (Michigan, Estados Unidos, 2004).
Components of The Program
This program aims to establish a healthy community in Perkinston, Mississippi, by addressing the diabetes issue among the African American population. For the program to achieve its mission, it has instituted goals of increasing diabetes awareness and improving self-efficacy through diabetes self-management. The program also has placed primary interventions of encouraging the engagement of healthy eating of fruits and drinking water, avoiding alcoholic beverages, and engaging in physical activities.
Stakeholders
The stakeholders include program funders, community members, and medical care staff. The donors will use the evaluation to determine if the program is working as planned. They would like to know if the provided funding is being properly managed and utilized according to the program’s budget. The community members will use the valuation of the needs assessment to which issues are being targeted and the population that will benefit from the program. The medical care staff will use the evalution to determine if the required knowledge and skills have been acquired from their training (Frierson et al., 2002).
Evaluation questions
Is the program effective as planned?
What is the extent of meeting the program’s needs?
What can be done to address the needs?
Is the program achieving its goal?
What is the program’s impact?
What are the opportunities for improving the program’s results?
Evaluation Matrix
| Evaluation question | Corresponding program objective/ goal | Indicators | Data source | Collection method | Data collection timeframe |
| Is the program effective as planned?
| Demonstrating strategies of avoiding diabetes and Creating a physical and social environment that promotes good health
| Qualitative and quantitative | Program staff | Questionnaire | once in every month |
| What is the extent of meeting the program’s needs?
| Eliminating disparities and promoting healthy development and healthy behaviours across all life stages.
| Qualitative And quantitative | Community members | survey | Once every four months |
| What can be done to address the needs?
| Promote public awareness on how to manage and prevent diabetes
| Qualitative | Community members | Focus group | Once every month |
| Is the program achieving its goal?
| advocating for the quality of life among the African American population | Quantitative | Community members | Focus group | Once every four months |
| What is the program’s impact?
| Developing momentum for action and participation | Qualitative | Health care staff | Clinical records | Once every four month |
| What are the opportunities of improving the program’s results?
| Create an evaluation plan that measures the progress toward achieving goals
| Qualitative | Program coordinator | Interview | Once every month |
Process of Gathering Credible Data
The collected data will be both quantitative and qualitative data (Edberg et al., 2011). It will be collected through focus groups, interviews, observations, surveys, use of clinical results like lab tests and quality measurements. Defining the data’s goal, assessing existing data, analyzing multiple assessments, designing improvement plans, and collecting data at intervals ensures the quality of the collected data.
Conclusion
The evaluation reports will be communicated through a formal report to the funders, community members, partners, and the program staff. The evaluation will contain the areas of success and impact and areas which require improvement (Moss, 1983). The program coordinator will communicate the program’s assessment quarterly. The evaluation results will be used to improve the program’s activities to achieve the program’s goals and objectives.
References
Antoinette, & Leslie. (2012). Introduction to Program Evaluation for Public Health Programs: A Self-Study Guide. https://www.cdc.gov/eval/guide/cdcevalmanual.pdf
Edberg, M. C., Corey, K., & Cohen, M. (2011). Using a Qualitative Approach to Develop an Evaluation Data Set for Community-Based Health Promotion Programs Addressing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Health Promotion Practice, 12(6), 912–922. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839910362035
Frierson, H., Hood, S., & Hughes, G. (2002). The 2002 User-Friendly Handbook for Project Evaluation. https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02057/nsf02057.pdf
Moss, N. (1983). An organization-environment framework for assessing program implementation. Evaluation and Program Planning, 6(2), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-7189(83)90029-0
- K. Kellogg Foundation (Michigan, Estados Unidos. (2004). W.K. Kellogg Foundation : evaluation handbook. W.K. Kellogg Foundation.