Evaluation Jacqui McDowell

Why evaluate? Learning Accountability

What do we evaluate? Process Impact To what extent are we doing what we said we would, in the way we said we would? What is different and why? Impact How much of a difference are we making? How does this compare to the difference that we intended to make?

Process What we are doing? How we do it? Strategies Who we are doing it with? How many? Are they our target group? Participants Context

Impact Outcomes Mechanisms How much of a difference are we making? Is this what we intended or expected? Outcomes Why is this happening (or not) for out participants? Mechanisms

Outcomes What is changing? knowledge, skills, feeling, behaviour, condition How is it changing? more, less, improve, reduce, increase, decrease, (sustain/maintain) Who is it changing for? parents, older people, children etc….

Intended outcomes….. The cooking skills of parents is improved More healthy meals are eaten by families Older people are more motivated to cook for themselves at home

How to work out if it is happening or not….. Quantitative or qualitative Indicators Before, after & beyond Baseline, end of intervention & longer term follow up Different perspectives Triangulation Evidence

Indicators The number of… The level of…. The nature of… Examples of Outcome Reduce young mums obesity Indicator The weight of young mums

Triangulation Robust evidence Self reported Observed - against criteria Third party feedback Tested or assessed Independently registered Different perspectives ensure validity Robust evidence

Evidence gathering … Interviews and focus groups Questionnaires Formal or informal discussion Questionnaires Open or closed questions, numerical scales, narrative scales (likert scales) Visual or creative Pictures, wheels, photos, video

So what?

Activity Working in pairs Critically appraise some tools

Debrief

Evaluation - making sense of impact To what extent are we making a difference for our participants, or not? Outcome (Intended & unintended) What are we doing that is contributing to this? Context What reactions/motivations are we triggering in participants? Mechanisms