If your conception of social change does not involve mapping the wandering of little white mice or estimating the correlation of beliefs and values of college students between the ages of 18 and 24, you may find evaluation research of interest and of use. Read Conducive’s “Your Thoughts for Mai Thoughts” columunist, Dr. Mai Kieu-Loan’s take on why program evalution in service organizations can be instrumental to acheiving progressive social goals.
Using Evaluation to Evolve and Affect Change
By Mai Kieu-Loan
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010 CONDUCIVE
As evaluation researchers know, study subjects no longer have to be lab mice, male, white, or a combination of the three. The focus of research does not have to examine how mice moved from point A to point B, or which volt of electric shock effects cheese preferences. Also, the boundary of human subjects extend beyond college students between the ages of 18 and 24 and their sleep-wake cycle or moral development. Indeed, evaluation research can be crafted to study the very essence of the how, where, what, who, and why of leveraging social change.
Study subjects can be real people in real dynamics. In short, study subjects can be about real people in real time. This includes the 69-year old indigent male who is homebound and receiving case management services, the 11-year old ADHD boy in the Head Start Program, or the 14-year old teen participating in an urban clean up program. The focus would be the delivery of services and how effective or impacting interventions have been. Results can help to understand how to ensure the homeless client returns to case management and stabilize in housing services. Or, how to improve motivation for continued recycling in school based programs. Evaluation, then, is a study of how to leverage change, identify markers to improve processes that evidence improved output, and study variables allowing for successful program replication.
With social change programming, wouldn’t the human story be important to portray?
Program stability is not sufficient in the current climate of competition, global expansion, and limited resources. Whether as a nonprofit in community service, a philanthropic organization with an aim towards supporting growth, or as a government entity overseeing funding allocation, having a measure of need, impact, and decisive processing can make a difference between a program existing or evolving. Evaluation and design can provide support for a program mission by highlighting processes, re-fining targets, assessing need, effecting culture change, and building talent. It can energize stakeholders and build new alliances. It can also serve to improve organizational learning. Program evaluation and design, then, is a tool to push forward beyond the present state to address building on organic growth and understanding change to allow for continued effectiveness.
The first step in evaluation is to understand the theory, mechanics, and implementation of the program. A program theory may be as simple as providing healthy meals to lower the rate of hunger. Or providing a secure shelter to a domestic violence victim to decreases the risk of injury and harm. Or providing a ‘green’ garden in an urban school to increase urban youth’s knowledge of locally green food. When the theory is identified, the next stage is to consider the mechanics. As a first step, analyze whether the theory matches the planned interventions. For instance, are the meals served nutritious, are information safeguards active in the shelter, are irrigation methods using rain water? This is akin to mapping the stages of the service (but with no mice involved!). From initial contact to use of actual services and all members involved, label and name resources, actions, and changes.
The strength of social change programs lies in the lens of the human narrative to capture growth, change, and hope of a better world.
Designing the research is a crucial step because, unlike traditional research, evaluation research not only includes quantitative research but also qualitative research. The strength of social change programs lies in the lens of the human narrative to capture growth, change, and hope of a better world. This means telling the story of how untraditional case management contacts not only improved medication adherence to a needed regimen but how the elderly male responded to warm handshakes and a smile. Or how a graffiti styling youth participated in re-painting a neighborhood mural with a changed perspective of community space and sharing creativity. Through careful planning of case studies, studying the program schema, and understanding the impact and changes, a narrative would provide insight into the human factor. With social change programming, wouldn’t the human story be important to portray? So, with the analysis of either a small sample size in the study or a large sample size, evaluation research would allow the voice of social change to sound.
Dr. Mai Kieu-Loan is a clinician with active research in cultural psychology and evaluation. She presents on research and mental health service care models for high risk urban communities with focus on acculturation stress/trauma, depression, and treatment applications.
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