Category: Evaluation

Many people interested in gathering data for program design or evaluation purposes find that their toolkit is insufficient in gathering accurate, reliable, and relevant data in order to give voice to persons living in situations of vulnerability, powerlessness, or marginalization. The American Evaluation Association is offering a 20-minute webinar that will provide an example of… Read more »

Public Health Ontario Webinar: Evaluation at a Glance

The Public Health Ontario (PHO) is offering a webinar that provides an overview of the 10 steps in developing and implementing an evaluation. This includes planning an evaluation, developing good evaluation questions and indicators, understanding and choosing the best methods for your evaluation, and how to make best use of evaluation results. As PH examines… Read more »

Are you a program manger looking for some straightforward advice on program evaluation? Kylie Hutchinson, Principal Consultant of Community Solutions provides you with just that in her article, “Evaluation Do’s and Don’ts for Program Managers”. Kylie’s advice is practical and useful, as it is informed by her vast experience working with non-profit organizations on program… Read more »

Is Research Working for You? Self-Assessment Tool

Many organizations would like to make better use of research, but aren’t sure where to start. Others feel they’re doing well, but would also like to know if there are areas they could improve. The Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI) has developed an organizational self-assesment tool that aims to help an organization evaluate its strengths and… Read more »

The gap between research and public health practice and policy has been well documented in the grey and peer-reviewed literature. Realizing the need to address this gap, the evidence-based decision making movement was born. The National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools offers an online learning module outlining the basics of evidence-informed decision making in… Read more »

Rights-based evaluation means that evaluators focus on the rights of stakeholders as identified in such documents as the UN Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities or the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Adopting such an approach has implications for the types of evaluation questions that are used to frame… Read more »

Building a Strategic Learning and Evaluation System

Evaluation work within many community-based HIV/AIDS organizations is often not aligned to strategy, underfunded, and underused. FSG, a non-profit consulting firm, aruges that “the meaningfulness and usability of evaluation information has been limited because of its disconnection from strategic and organizational-level decision making. Even in the most well-intentioned organizations – with leaders who believe in evaluation’s ability… Read more »

YouthCo in the Evaluation Spotlight

YouthCo is a community-driven organization run by and for youth that seeks to engage, educate and empower young people living with or at-risk of HIV and Hep C. Claire O’Gorman, the Peer Education Programs Manager at YouthCo shared some words about a needs assessment they conducted to better inform the delivery of their programming. “Get… Read more »

Confused by Evaluation Terms? New Evaluation Glossary App

Have you ever found yourself confused by inconsistent or overlapping terms in evaluation? Does one funder ask for an Outcomes Measurement Framework while another wants an Evaluation Plan?  What’s the difference between Outcomes and Impacts? To help navigate this terminology, Community Solutions has developed a handy Evaluation Glossary App that provides references to over 600 evaluation,… Read more »

Vancouver-Based Training Opportunity in Evaluation

The Canadian Evaluation Society is offering their annual Essential Skills Series in Evaluation in Vancouver. The Essential Skills Series consists of four inclusive days of foundational workshops (both of the 2 day workshops combined). The workshops have been designed by the Canadian Evaluation Society to enhance program evaluation skills and promote the professional practice of evaluation… Read more »

Case Study Evaluation 101

Case study evaluation can be a useful technique when there is a particularly unique or interesting story to be told about a program or service being assessed. Case studies are often used to bring other data alive, as they provide context and a more complete picture of what the program or service achieved and why…. Read more »