PHASE THREE
Legacy
STEP 06
Learning from Evidence:
Internal Communication
In Step 06: Learning from Evidence: Internal Communication, you will use your findings to re-examine your program and inform future planning. Your evaluation findings will help stakeholders understand the real story of your program.
You will use various strategies to share your data with different stakeholders, both internally and externally. You will engage your program stakeholders in conversations about relevant findings, and then take responsive and responsible action.
Did you do what you said you would do?
Did you do it well?
Did it make a difference for the youth in your program?
KEY TAKEAWAY
Tap into your evaluation insights! Use your findings to spark conversations with stakeholders and shape future planning, ensuring your program is on track and making a real difference for youth.
01.
Decide on the data and stories you need to share internally vs. externally.
Go back to your stakeholder engagement plan. Consider who to engage to share promising practices, learn from your findings, improve your program, and inform policies and practices.
02.
Identify what to communicate so that everyone can learn from your findings.
You’ll have numbers, stories, and learnings. Consider the actionable evidence, the findings that are in your control to respond to as a program/organization. Identify what can be improved and how. You might consider developing a program improvement action plan that outlines how you are going to make recommended changes based on the evaluation findings – and how you will monitor these changes going forward.
03.
Determine how you will share your findings with different audiences of internal stakeholders.
Supervisors and directors may need to see more of the data than frontline workers or program participants, and how you communicate with board members may be different than how you communicate with youth. Regardless of whether you create a report card for staff, a presentation to share at a board meeting, or a workshop for youth participants, remember the following four principles when sharing evaluation findings internally by making the information simple, accessible, relatable, and engaging.
01.
Positive and negative evaluation results can both be motivating and inspiring to staff.
Don’t be afraid to share results!
02.
When you’re mining your data to come up with your internal evaluation story, don’t forget to keep in mind what you want to share externally.
Keep a note of stories, narratives, testimonials, etc., that spark with you so that when you plan your final evaluation step – external communication – you’ll know where to start!
When and how are findings best shared with our stakeholders?
Evaluation results, no matter what the field, are generally used to do three things:
- make judgments,
- inform decisions about improvements, and/or
- provide knowledge.
Examples of how findings from a youth program evaluation could be used include to:
- Make decisions about modifying the program to strengthen it.
- Change outreach / recruitment of youth participants.
- Justify a program and ensure financial support.
- Make decisions about professional development, coaching, or support for program staff.
- Build community understanding of and support for programs.
We can’t address a specific piece of negative feedback. Is that okay?
While we know that a program won’t necessarily be the perfect fit for every youth participating, negative feedback can push us to be better. Create an action plan for changes that need to be made and proceed with goals, a timeline, and actions that makes sense for your context and your organization.