Program evaluation at Power To Be is an important organizational practice. Monitoring and tracking of program outcomes, participant satisfaction, and program intentions are used to evaluate, inform, and improve program quality while also informing our stakeholders and industry partners on themes, trends, and best practices. In 2018, Power To Be redesigned our evaluation process to follow a Theory Of Change Framework in order to have an evaluation tool that looks at the intricacies of people and how people change behaviourally, physically, and socially.
Our Theory of Change Evaluation model offers the opportunity to gain more perspectives in a variety of fashions. This has allowed us to monitor, track and evaluate impact in real-time through many different modes of gathering data. Our model measures 8 desired program outcomes against a three-point scale that outlines short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals; defined as ‘Expect to see’, ‘Hope to see’ and ‘Love to see’. These levels identify indicators of positive behaviour, knowledge, attitude, or skill change seen in participants through growth and/or time because of their involvement in our programs. We collect our data (stories) through conversations, reflection activities, surveys, observations from staff/caregivers, and blog posts. Since moving to this model we have been able to expand the voices of those who engage in our evaluation process to include a greater number of participants, as well as volunteers, staff, caregivers, and parents.
