PUAD 629, Program Evaluation, Sample Outline for Evaluation Plan

PUAD 629, Program Evaluation, Sample Outline for Evaluation Plan

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1. Introduction

There are few more resilient groups in our culture than the young adults aging out of foster care. They have bounced back from multiple placements, trauma, and often times, abuse. Some have been reunified with their loved ones, found forever families, while others have joined a community of support. But one thing that is true for most, if not all of our youth thriving after foster care, is that they would benefit in finding at least one significant person that believes in them and challenges them to be the best versions of themselves. This person will often become a mentor.

Mentoring is essential to the development of the youths in foster care whether it is formal or informal. For the majority of youth in foster care, there is no safety net to rely on during the transition from dependence to independence. This places even more importance on those caring adults whom they learn to trust over time. More than anything, youth in foster care need a caring and consistent adult. Youth in foster care are just like any other kid, they want to have fun and be loved unconditionally. However often times they experience challenging situations and have to make adult decisions. The need someone to bounce their ideas off of, someone that will listen and be there, but also knows when to share sound advice and guide them towards their goals.

Through this program mentors will be able to provide that sense of security and guidance for their mentees. However, many traditional mentoring programs are not equipped to support youth in foster care. Resources and formal training are not always available for programs that want to support system involved youth. When a child is experiencing a placement change, leaving behind friends, belongings, and natural mentors, a formal program such as this offers that same child stability in their rocky situation – their mentor is someone that follows them throughout their journey, is in tune to their needs and can advocate for them..

The main aim of this program evaluation is to systematically assess the operation and outcomes of the program, comparing it to the set of explicit and implicit standards as a means of contributing to the improvement of the program. This will enable us to know whether we are moving in the right direction. Further, we will be able to judge whether our program is effective or not.

1. Project/Policy Overview

1. Problem Statement (paragraph or so; what’s the social problem?; why do we need to address the social problem?; see guidance on Sakai)

1. Program Description (including program theory figure that is explained in the text as a way of describing the program activities and how they are related to desired outcomes)

III.       Evaluation Overview

The primary purpose of this evaluation is to determine if the program is having any type of impact as intended. After implementation, we want to review whether it has made impacts on self-sufficiency and self-care, confidence building, educational and career planning, housing and money management and daily living of the youths after foster care. The evaluation will entail two parts: assessment of merit and worth and assessment for program improvement. Those involved with the program believe in its success and are in full support of its ability to achieve the expected returns. We will use a summative evaluation to support/refute any assumption and find out whether the program is responsible for significant improvements to the youths. An evaluation at this stage can objectively review the program and determine relations between program efforts and community impacts. If findings are positive, it will aid in securing further and continued funding sources.

Additionally, we want to explore how the program can be improved operationally to ensure its future success. A formative evaluation will help identify areas that need improvement for maximum program impact. The evaluation will assess which activities are implemented well, which areas are in need of improvements, and what outcomes have been realized as a result of the program.

1. Evaluation Questions

Formative Questions

The implementation question used to evaluate the community school’s program is: “Do the participants understand the program and its goals?” It was important during the implementation to have stakeholder input as a key priority in this process.  Furthermore, successful implementation of the community schools program requires not only the understanding of the process from the perspective of those tasked with its implementation, but also all those who are stakeholders and dependent on the success of the program.  Cross-level understanding of the goals of mentorship programs, even on a basic service provision level, is invaluable to whether the program is effective or not.

The stakeholder perspectives question used to evaluate the community school’s program is: “To what extent are the foster parents input being utilized when developing program implementation?”  Next to the youths, who receive the most direct interaction with the program, parents are the most important stakeholders. Therefore, it is important that the parent perspective is identified as one that was crucial to evaluating how well the program has been implemented.

The outcome question used to evaluate the community school’s program is: “Are the skills being imparted helpful?” Skills from mentorship are key measures to how effective the foster care model is, and is  key to positive outcomes.

Summative Questions

The first causal merit question used to evaluate the community school’s program is: “Have the youths become more socially responsible?”.  Being responsible is one of the key measure of success in life. For the youths leaving foster care, their ability to cope with life challenges and stand on their own is a good measure of how effective the mentorship program is.  The second causal merit question used to evaluate the community school’s program is: “Are the youths benefiting from the foster care program?”  Youthjs leaving foster care to join the world are expected to become key members in the society in which they find themselves in. As a result, whether the program benefits the youths could be viewed as the most important measure of programmatic success.  A lack of the said benefits could be deemed as an immediate program failure.

1. Stakeholder Involvement

There are several stakeholders we will be working closely with to design and interpret the evaluation results. Primarily we will work with participants, the foster families and immediate care givers and the community representatives for purposes of feedback. These are all individuals/entities that are primary stakeholders and are directly impacted by the program. The evaluation will also be answerable to these groups and hence will include information they are interested in. These are also the groups that will provide answers to the evaluation questions. The interpretation of results will also rely on the expertise of these groups. For example, confidence level and self-care before and after mentorship, will require the input of the foster care givers.

1. Methodology

1. Participants (population of interest and sample selection criteria–justify)

1. Evaluation Design
   1. Formative Evaluation (e.g., assess quality of implementation and interview stakeholders on barriers and suggested strategies); note the questions to be addressed by the formative evaluation
      1. Quantitative Methods
      2. Qualitative Methods

2. Summative Evaluation (e.g., pre-post test comparison group design) note the questions to be addressed by the summative evaluation
   1. Quantitative Design
   2. Qualitative Design for Mixed Methods

1. Measurement (as with Design, organize by quantitative and qualitative methods)

1. Instruments (e.g., surveys, checklists, or questions for focus groups)

2. Data Collection Procedures (including Sources of Data Table that conveys the sources of data needed for each evaluation question)

1. (Analysis; not necessary for this course)