week one evaluation

Evaluating BPHI’s Impact on Homelessness

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Evaluating BPHI’s Impact on Homelessness

The purpose of this course is to conduct a program evaluation of Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Inc. (BPHI), a nonprofit agency providing services to homeless individuals in Broward County, Florida. Some of the services provided by BPHI include case management services, psychiatric care, vocational training, and educational referrals. A part of the assessment was to develop a logic model that describes the program structure of BPHI, including the magnitude, activities, outputs, and outcomes of the program or organization (Fink, 2015). In addition, hypothetical data would be used to represent the actual data because of limited time. The model will demonstrate that the systematic approach shows how the resources and actions of BPHI result in measurable impacts through a systematic approach that can provide real effectiveness about program performance and areas for potential improvement.

A number of ethical issues emerge throughout the course of a program evaluation in a social service organization. The consultants have to convince the clients that confidentiality of information is assured throughout the project, and data collected is not of a nature to reveal identities of particular individuals or clients. In this respect, the evaluation of BPHI uses measures for which data is available to reflect effectiveness without compromising privacy. More than that, informed consent from both the agency and clients, should any client information be involved, needs to be obtained by the evaluators in line with guidelines on the respect of the rights of the clients and policies of the agency.

Further ethical considerations are control of likely biases or conflicts of interests that may arise in the process of evaluation. Evaluators have to be objective and avoid any action that might alter results or damage the reputation of the agency. This is borrowed from Fink, who posited that the review to be carried out should be free from blemish, value-free, and supplemented, which appreciates openness in neutrality when confirming the effectiveness of a specific program. The other type of concerns present could be legal; for example, data protection legislation. These are significant in implementing guidelines for sensitive information about customers and in upholding ethical concern.

I will interview a key personnel member with an in-depth knowledge of the agency's services and outcome measurement practices that will give insight into how the agency operates. This person will be able to provide information on the program structure, inputs, and intended outcomes necessary to develop a comprehensive logic model. In developing an appropriate evaluation framework, consultation with knowledgeable personnel is indispensable since they are the ones who would add nuances to program effectiveness and areas that may warrant change according to Fink (2015). If information is integrated into the logic model, the study would represent the agency's goals by highlighting immediate outputs to long-term impacts on client wellbeing.

References

Fink, A. (2015). Evaluation fundamentals: Insights into program effectiveness, quality, and value (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.