Evaluations — Finding Your Way | Leap Solutions Group, Inc.
Evaluations are a valuable tool that reveal how stated objectives and outcomes were accomplished, and the impact it had. Leap Solutions can help you with your evaluation needs. We are dedicated to keeping you informed and empowered with relevant, up-to-the-minute information and resources, working with you to develop practical solutions and smart planning decisions for your organization. Our evaluation services focus on the outcome of your program, clarifying complex concepts and helping with decision- making.
In this issue of our newsletter:
- Evaluations — Finding Your Why
- Case Study: Findings from Youth Promotor Internship Model
- Leap Solutions can help you with your own evaluation needs
Evaluations — Finding Your Why
If a project your organization created and implemented worked successfully before, it’s likely to work again IF you know WHY it worked.
And if it didn’t work… you’ll still want to know why.
Evaluations provide that ‘why’ by exploring stated objectives, measuring outcomes, and affirming that goals were met. Evaluations are a valuable tool that reveal and present how stated objectives and outcomes were accomplished, and the impact of a project, program, or service.
Evaluations simultaneously look back on how things worked, or didn’t work, offer valuable insights for validating time, effort, and resources to a program’s continuation, and can justify the same efforts and approaches for a new program. Scenarios that would benefit from evaluations include:
- Your non-profit received a grant and require reports on accomplished outcomes during the grant period.
- You are doing strategic planning and create a dashboard to track progress and monitor successes.
- You are launching a new sales initiative and want feedback from customers to see if it’s going to work.
- You want to understand how a newly launched, comprehensive employee benefits program affects employee retention.
Here are the real world findings from a Leap Solutions evaluation project.
Case Study: Findings from Youth Promotor Internship Model
In 2019, Latino Service Providers (LSP) retained Leap Solutions to evaluate LSP’s Youth Promotor Internship model and its implications on emergency preparedness in the Latinx community.
LSP serves as a bridge across generations in the Latinx community by advancing the development of young leaders; building awareness about health and wellness, culture, and social issues; and advocating for equity.
The American Red Cross of the North Bay partnered with LSP to fund a Youth Promotor Internship Program focused on increasing community outreach and expanding emergency preparedness awareness.
Interns in the Youth Promotores/Promotoras confronted two major disasters during their internship, the 2019 Kincaid Fire and the 2020 global pandemic. The evaluation outcomes demonstrate that Youth Promotores/Promotoras contribute to strengthening community resilience by working with and engaging people in the community, facilitating transformational responses to crises, and promoting equity.
-
- To broaden communication in the community about the fire, the Youth Promotores/Promotoras created videos in English and Spanish regarding the fire’s movement, shelters’ status and capacity, and other related information. These videos were shared widely via social media. Youth Promotores/Promotoras and LSP staff partnered with the American Red Cross and a Petaluma evacuation center to provide bilingual support and translation services to ensure that all individuals had food, water, and basic essentials during the duration of the shelter. Youth Promotores/Promotoras were instrumental in navigating families to emergency shelters, resources, and disseminating the English and Spanish informational videos via a comprehensive social media campaign during the Kincaid fire.
Preparación Para Un Desastre- Incendio Kincade:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvMvW2fZCKk
Being Prepared for a Disaster- Kincade Fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSIGDFzCwQk
- During the COVID-19 pandemic and Sonoma County’s March 2020 shelter-in-place orders, Youth Promotores/Promotoras found new ways to promote mental health in the face of a global disaster and engage with the community by creating videos, distributing them across social media, and by utilizing the Latino Service Providers weekly e-newsletter.
- To broaden communication in the community about the fire, the Youth Promotores/Promotoras created videos in English and Spanish regarding the fire’s movement, shelters’ status and capacity, and other related information. These videos were shared widely via social media. Youth Promotores/Promotoras and LSP staff partnered with the American Red Cross and a Petaluma evacuation center to provide bilingual support and translation services to ensure that all individuals had food, water, and basic essentials during the duration of the shelter. Youth Promotores/Promotoras were instrumental in navigating families to emergency shelters, resources, and disseminating the English and Spanish informational videos via a comprehensive social media campaign during the Kincaid fire.
The evaluation concluded that the Youth Promoter Internship model is an effective method of community outreach. Latino Service Providers’ executive director, Guadalupe Navarro, stated that, “The evaluation report has helped Latino Service Providers inform our funders of the impact of our Youth Promotor model. More importantly, it has provided Latino Service Providers an insight on how to further develop and strengthen our program to best serve our community and Youth Promotores.”
The evaluation enabled Latino Service Providers to again fund the internship program, and fund a new program with Kaiser Permanente for a year. Leap Solutions is currently in the midst of evaluating both programs.
Leap Solutions can help you with your own evaluation needs
Our Evaluation services focus on:
- Outcomes – measured and reported based upon the identified objectives of the program;
- Clarifying complexity – making the complex understandable and providing relevant context based upon the objectives;
- Decision- making criteria – defining best fiscal and resource utilization.
Using these proven and well-tested approaches ensure an evaluation that presents the results, achievements, and ROI of your organization’s efforts.
Contact Leap Solutions to find YOUR why.
***
Leap Solutions is a diverse group of highly skilled management, organizational development, and human resources, and executive search and recruitment professionals who have spent decades doing what we feel passionate about helping you feel passionate about what you do. Our HR specialists can help you get a handle on the ever-changing COVID-19 guidelines, programs, and legislation that may impact you and your employees. We are available to work with you to develop practical solutions and smart planning decisions for your organization’s immediate, near, and long-term needs.
To print this article, click here
