PHASE ONE
Discovery

STEP 01

Pre-Evaluation Check Up

In Step 01: Pre-Evaluation Check Up, you will assess your program’s evaluation capacity to figure out where you are on your evaluation journey.

The Pre-Evaluation Check Up will capture information on your organizational context and evaluation assets, and the evaluation experience of your staff. The answers will help you understand what supports you need to accomplish your evaluation goals.

You will also be able to identify the areas where the organization wants to focus its evaluation efforts.

Where is your organization on your evaluation journey?

What is your capacity to undertake this journey?

What are your evaluation assets?

What resources do you need to successfully complete this journey?

KEY TAKEAWAY

A shared understanding of your program’s capacity and what program assets/resources are available to support your evaluation. An example of an asset/resource would be an inventory of data that your program already collects.

01.

Start with an Evaluation Capacity Review to understand what assets your program has in place and what resources it needs to support your evaluation.

02.

Identify which of your stakeholders you should involve in the evaluation process. The Stakeholder Identification and Analysis Technique can help!

03.

Determine appropriate strategies for engaging with individual stakeholders.

04.

Remember that meaningfully involving youth participants strengthens evaluations of youth programs. Watch this YouthREX webinar series to learn more about engaging youth in program design and development and in evaluation.

Complete a stakeholder analysis before you begin your stakeholder engagement process. Pay attention to their interests and expectations, their powers, their interrelationships, and the various roles they might play. Don’t forget that youth are an important stakeholder group!
Who are your program stakeholders?

Stakeholders are individuals, groups or organizations that can affect – or are affected by – a an evaluation process or its findings. The primary intended users – the people who will be making decisions on the basis of the evaluation findings – are considered ‘Key Stakeholders’. 

Engaging your stakeholders in your evaluation is useful to ensure that expected results are meeting end-user needs, enhance the design and implementation of the evaluation, contribute to the program logic model and framing of key evaluation questions, and provide different perspectives on what will be considered credible evidence. 

Engaging youth in your evaluation provides them with opportunities for skill development, relationship building, and exposure to diverse opportunities to learn, as well as:
  • improves the overall quality of the research and evaluation process.
  • benefits the wider community.
  • contributes to validating the diverse experiences of youth and equalizing power relations.

Engaging stakeholders ensures that your evaluation will address the questions that they have, contributes to the development of the program logic model, contributes to the framing of key evaluation questions, improves quality data collection, and increases the likelihood that the evaluation’s findings will be used.

To decide whether to use an internal or external evaluator (or both!), ask yourself these questions (the Evaluation Checklist can also help!): 

  • Does your program have funds designated for evaluation purposes? Have you successfully conducted previous evaluations of similar programs or services?
  • Are existing program practices and information collection forms useful for evaluation purposes?
  • Can you collect evaluation information as part of your regular program operations (at intake, termination)?
  • Can you collect evaluation information as part of your regular program operations (at intake, termination)?
  • Are there program staff that have training and experience in evaluation-related tasks?
  • Are there advisory board members who have training and experience in evaluation-related tasks?
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