Preparing for your Evaluation (Module 2). Preparing for your program evaluation goes beyond making sure you have all the people, tools, and necessary resources in place. It also includes examining ways to ensure your evaluation design reflects racial and gender equity standards and centers the meaningful involvement of people who use drugs in your process.

Planning for Your Evaluation (Module 3). Planning your evaluation involves taking a deep dive into the specifics of how your evaluation will be implemented. This includes making determinations about who will be involved, the type of evaluation you will need to conduct, how data will be collected, resources necessary to be successful, and the timeframes for each of the activities. Also key to the planning process is identifying who will lead and contribute to your program evaluation effort. Clearly identifying, defining, and assigning roles on the front end can help to minimize role ambiguity and support coordination and buy-in throughout the evaluation process.

Doing Your Evaluation (Module 4). This stage of the process involves collecting, preparing, and analyzing your program evaluation data. While there are many methods you can use to collect relevant quantitative and qualitative data, it’s helpful to prioritize the method(s) that will pose the least disruption to your program’s day-to-day operations. Similarly, when it comes to analyzing your data, the simple approach is sometimes the best approach.

Using Your Evaluation (Module 5). In the last module, we covered strategies for sharing the results of your evaluation with both an internal audience and an external audience. Whether you are using your evaluation data to document progress, drive action, or support sustainability efforts, how you package and communicate the information can be just as important as the information itself. Appropriate data visualization elements such as charts, graphs, and concept maps can help you tell the story of your data in a clear and effective way.