Step 6. How Well? Evaluation and Follow-up

How do you know you were successful?

The goals you developed at the beginning of the planning process become your measuring stick for success. To know if you have successfully reached these objectives, set benchmarks indicating satisfactory levels of accomplishment. To ascertain when the program has reached these levels, you must measure your progress. Design your evaluation forms in concert with your goals.

To determine whether you were successful, divide your evaluation into three measurement areas:

• Exposure
• Effectiveness
• Cost effectiveness

Exposure

Did you meet your projection for number of attendees?

Did the program gain adequate exposure?

There are two aspects to exposure: before and after.

1. Before: informing the community
   Your evaluation should answer questions such as:

   • How many news stories, articles, radio announcements, television spots, posters and flyers were distributed?
   • Where were the announcements placed?
   • Where did participants hear about the program?
   • Did families and partners respond to the publicity?
   • How many personal contacts were made?
   
    

2. After: reporting on the events
   Your evaluation should answer questions such as:

   • Did the media distribute information about safe driving in the older population after the event?
   • Did reporters attend?
   • Were there follow-up stories?
   • Were there follow-up responses from older adults and/or caregivers?

Effectiveness

Was the program effective in achieving your goals?

1. You should test the level of knowledge about your program's topic prior to conducting your program. You should test the level of knowledge about your program's topic prior to conducting your program. You can follow up with a second test following the program. Consider asking participants, at the beginning of the program, what they want to know about the topic, and what they don't understand. Then ask why they came. This information is useful to define their level of behavior change or motivational status. For more information on motivation for behavior change, turn to Chapter 1 of the Blueprint module.
2. Note whether participants ask for additional information or programs, and/or ask questions of the speaker.
3. If the program follows a small-group and one-to-one format, how many participants take advantage of the one-to-one portion?
4. Before you close, ask the same questions asked at the beginning of the session. See if knowledge has increased.
5. Follow up at a later time with participants to determine how they used the information.

Cost Effectiveness

Did the program's cost in time and resources provide enough benefit to satisfy the community, funders and your organization?

An ideal benefit from the program would be a decrease in crashes involving older drivers, which comes from earlier recognition of unsafe driving habits and their willingness to change their driving habits. This sort of evaluation, involving in-depth, long-term research, is expensive and remains outside the financial capabilities of most community-based organizations, unless you have close ties with university research departments or organizations funded to conduct this research. If so, they may be interested in helping you measure the effectiveness of your programs.

Despite these evaluation challenges, documenting the cost-benefit outcomes of a program results in better planning for the next project, and may in fact be required for continued outside funding.

The following are examples of participant and program coordinator evaluations along with a summary evaluation. These or similar forms should be completed and kept with other program materials so they can be reviewed when future programs are planned. When presenting to ethnic older adults, take into consideration health literacy and language issues. Assisting the participants in completing the evaluation form may guarantee better success.

Example - Evaluation Forms: Program Satisfaction

Example - Evaluation Forms: Program Monitor

Example - Evaluation Forms: Exposure

Example - Final Evaluation Worksheet