Program Evaluation Toolkit for Harm Reduction Organizations
For a movement with limited resources confronting massive challenges, harm reduction has always required careful attention to the effectiveness and impact of everything it attempts. This makes evaluation and harm reduction a natural partnership, pairing insight with innovation to enable positive change and ensure the best possible outcomes for our communities.
Voices from the Field: Danny Clawson
“When I was getting my MPH (Masters in Public Health), I became really passionate about making sure that we were effectively measuring what we were doing and following the evidence and making sure that we were not wasting our money…that translates really well into harm reduction. I think once the larger network trained up on monitoring and evaluation tactics and techniques, I really see an opportunity for this movement to be on the cutting edge of marrying radical community-based work and monitoring and evaluation.”
WHAT IS PROGRAM EVALUATION?
“Program evaluation is the systemic method for collecting, analyzing, and using data to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of programs and contribute to continuous program improvement.” —Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Generally speaking, the purpose of a program evaluation is to understand and measure how well a program has been able to accomplish its goals and reach its desired impact.
When funders are the driving force behind when and why to evaluate a program, it can be difficult to see the value of this effort to what matters most. But, the truth is, program evaluations can be both a useful and meaningful exercise for your and program team! Program evaluations can help you identify needs related to staffing and service delivery, retrieve the information needed to problem solve and make informed decisions, better understand how well your program is operating, gauge how your services are being received by the community, and pursue additional or complementary funding streams to sustain your efforts.
In short, when you evaluate your harm reduction program, you invest in:
Take a moment to reflect on other potential benefits to your program and your community when you evaluate your harm reduction program. How might those benefits improve service delivery and/or client experience?
