Evaluation

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Evaluation is an essential component of any program and should be built into every project or initiative. Evaluation is a way to measure the progress and impact of a program. It can be used to tell you if you are meeting the intended needs of your target audience. It can also give you valuable feedback that can help guide you as you make adjustments to improve a program.

Evaluations help us to...

1. Monitor the program's progress and performance,
2. Identify problems that prevent a program from creating change,
3. Improve a program’s performance or effectiveness,
4. Demonstrate a program's benefits to funding sources and community members, and
5. Obtain funding to sustain a program.

The following is a list of websites for references, tools, and resources to help develop an evaluation plan:

• American Evaluation Association
  This website features an assortment of evaluation resources, trainings, publications, and provides assistance to find an evaluator.
• Conducting Surveys, The Community Tool Box
  This section of the Community Tool Box website provides an in-depth look at surveys: when to use surveys, how to prepare and distribute a survey, and how to analyze survey results.
• Diagnostic Tool to Assess Injury Prevention Programs, Center for Injury Prevention, Policy and Practice [pdf, 317KB*]
  This assessment tool can be used to analyze key programmatic activities.
• Evaluation Publications, University of Wisconsin-Extension
  This repository of publications provides practical, easy-to-use guides designed to help plan and implement credible and useful evaluations.
• Framework for Program Evaluation, CDC Evaluation Workgroup
  This section of the CDC website provides an in-depth exploration of the framework for program evaluation in Public Health.
• Introduction to Evaluation, The Community Tool Box
  This section of the Community Tool Box website provides an introduction to using standards and proven frameworks when evaluating a specific program.
• Some Methods for Evaluating Comprehensive Community Initiatives, The Community Tool Box
  This section of the Community Tool Box website provides an overview of methods used to evaluate community initiatives such as gathering information, rating levels of satisfaction, and using community-level indicators.
• Some Operations in Evaluating Community Intervention, The Community Tool Box
  This section of the Community Tool Box website provides an overview of operations involved in evaluating community interventions such as developing evaluation questions, creating a plan, selecting an appropriate research design, and analyzing data.
• The Incidence and Economic Burden of Injuries in the United States, Oxford University Press
  This book examines medical expenses and productivity losses by gender, age, mechanism of injury, body part injured, as well as severity of the injury.
• Toolkit of Evaluation Methods and Measures, Ontario Injury Prevention Resource
  This toolkit provides useful knowledge and resources that can help when planning and doing evaluations of an injury prevention program, project, or other activities.

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