For Fortified only
675dor
Evaluationassignmentforweek5.docx|
Assignment 2: RA 2: Program Evaluation Plan Program evaluation is an essential practice in human services organizations that provides a systematic and scientific approach for decision-making and program intervention. This process ensures that agencies perform effectively by being outcome-oriented and accountable. Since human services are often made up of many elements with complex relationships and dynamics, an evaluator needs to engage in collaborative reflection with key stakeholders, be grounded in people's experiences, and use data to ask good questions. For this assignment, build upon the needs assessment conducted in M3 Assignment 2 RA 1 and design a program evaluation plan using appropriate evaluation frameworks discussed in the earlier modules. Tasks: Using at least 3–5 scholarly resources from the professional literature, research program evaluation. The literature may include relevant textbooks, peer-reviewed journal articles, and websites created by professional organizations, agencies, or institutions (.edu, .org, or .gov). Create a 10-page evaluation plan, including the following: · Program's Context: Identify the setting (including mission and objectives of the program), target population, and environmental influences within which the program operates. · Purpose of Evaluation: State the purpose of your evaluation. Having a clear purpose prevents hasty decisions in how an evaluation should be conducted. It could be for introducing a new approach to practice, to change an existing one, or to evaluate the effect of existing program activities. · Expected Effects: Describe the desired outcomes (short- and long-term ones) for the program to be successful. · Stakeholders: Identify all the stakeholders who would need to be engaged in the evaluation. · Design of Framework: Choose an evaluation framework that will influence what type of resources will be used as evidence, how that evidence will be gathered and analyzed, and what kind of claims can be made. · Resources (What Is the Required Data?): Determine criteria for effectiveness of the program and the data that would need to be collected to meet the selected criteria. · Selection of Methods (How Can We Get It?): Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different data-gathering techniques and information analysis approaches to ensure quality in the evidence gathered. · Findings (What Does the Data Mean?): Highlight important evaluation findings, including effective strategies to interpret, and present results and recommendations for the program to the stakeholders. · Dissemination of the Findings: Select appropriate communication strategies and develop a communication plan using appropriate media and technology to inform the stakeholders. · Plan for Follow Up for Ongoing Improvement (What Are We Going to Do Now?): Determine how the results will be implemented and monitored. |
Human Service Needs Assessment Report
Human service programs help in both the remediation and prevention of problems affecting populations in the society hence enabling members of those populations to perform at their highest capacity. The dynamism in the societies (race, culture, sexual orientation, background, income, living standards, etc.) implies that different populations have varying problems, i.e., the problems of a population might vary from another population. The human service professionals come in handy to fill the gaps and needs (problems) that prevent people from performing at their ultimate best. Today, democracy and liberalism continue to grow across the world, and one of the major aspects of these political ideologies is the need for societal equality (Monette, Sullivan, & DeJong, 2013). The humanitarian organizations and other NGOs in democratically upbeat societies call for the need to establish human service programs to help in the remediation and prevention of societal problems. However, the limited financial resources along with the stiff competition for these resources force human service agencies to operate within budgetary constraints. The intense examination of these agencies following their request for financial backing focus on the accountability and project evaluation of the needs to be addressed by the program (s). The paper examines a human service program in an organization, its needs assessment, the possible source of resources to address the identified needs, the identification of the stakeholders in the assessment and the interpersonal, political & ethical considerations of interacting with the stakeholders and decision makers.
Numerous governmental, humanitarian and other non-governmental organizations exist in the U.S whose purpose is to address the needs of diverse groups of people in the society through their programs. For instance, the programs under the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) are essential in addressing certain societal needs affecting some people. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Outpatient Treatment program, Child Support Enforcement program and Nutrition Services Incentive Program (NSIP) are some of the programs enforced by the above-listed organizations.
The FNS and CNPP are agencies of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) under food, nutrition and customer services. The FNS agency administers fifteen federal nutrition assistance programs including WIC, SNAP, Child & Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), National School Breakfast program, National School Lunch Program, Summer Food Service program, etc. (United States Department of Agriculture). The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) offers food stamp benefits to the eligible low-income families across the U.S (Everson, 2017). The program is regarded the largest in the domestic hunger safety net and works in partnership with other organizations and stakeholders to assist the legible families, e.g., they assist the low-income family to make sound decisions. FNS collaborates with both the state and tribal governments to serve one in four Americans in their endeavors to end hunger and obesity across the country. The public, non-profit and private organizations are some of the close partners of the FNS.
The mission of the agency is to increase food security and reduce hunger by providing children, and low-income people access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education in a way that supports American agriculture and inspires public confidence (United States Department of Agriculture). The agency has several objectives mirrored across all the fifteen programs, i.e., the mission and the objectives of the program and agency mirror each other. The program helps Americans eat smart and maintain a healthy weight, reduces food insecurity by helping feed those in need and ensure access, equality & respect of all the programs. Under the “no America should have to go hungry” flagship, the investments by these program support health care, competitive workforce and education. The FNS agency has in place the strategies and policies that ensure sound stewardship of the taxpayers’ money through prevention and reduction of fraud and increased efficiency. The SNAP program has improved the healthy living standards of numerous low-income families across the U.S. However, the human service personnel within the program desire to add to their so far accomplishments by reaching out to more Americans hence the need for more funding (Everson, 2017). As pointed out, the FNS agency administers fifteen programs, and this increases the competition for the financial resources allocated to the agency by the federal government. According to the SNAP officials, the program addresses far much dire needs across the American societies than any other program under the FNS umbrella. Therefore, the need for additional funding warrants for an evaluation to ascertain the extent of the expected impact.
The needs of any organization or program present challenges that can have a large and positive impact on the target population if accomplished. The challenge and commitment of FNS, now and in the future, is to ensure that programs continue to respond to the needs of the low-income families and respond to the changing economic conditions while ensuring sound stewardship of the taxpayers’ dollars (United States Department of Agriculture). Social scientists and other researchers do not agree on anyone correct needs assessment procedure or method although they all agree that the assessments focus on a group in a system (Hyer, Tocce, & Steinauer, 2017). For the SNAP, the needs assessment will focus on the needs identification of the low-income families in the U.S and the assessment of the potential solution. Focus groups and institutional data are the two main needs assessment methods; the SNAP assessment will employ both methods (Everson, 2017). The focus group method utilizes opinions, preferences and qualitative data whereas the institutional data focus on the performance indicators, background information & key documents and quantitative and qualitative data.
By the U.S standards, the low-income families stand at 200% of the federal poverty level, i.e., a family of four that makes less than $47248 per years. The low-income families stand at 100% the federal poverty level, i.e., a family of four that earns less than $23624 per year. In 2015, a report by the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) revealed that 44% of the children across the U.S live in low-income families according to the 2013 U.S census (Sillers, 2015). Also, the report revealed that 22% of the 44% were living in poor households. The changing economic conditions in the U.S make it almost impossible to predict the cost of living in a year or so. As such, a need exists for the FNS to expand the periodically SNAP based on the changing tides of the economy, i.e., the rise in the inflation rates (e.g., the Great Recession of 2008) tend to subject low-income families to harsh living standards (Sillers, 2015). Since the turn of the century, the country recorded the highest inflation rates in 2008 and compared to last year; 2017 has a relatively higher inflation rates hence slightly costlier life. The harsh economic conditions continue to expose more and more low-income families to unhealthy diets hence the need to expand the outreach of the SNAP (Everson, 2017). Comparing the inflation rates in 2013 and 2017, the higher rates in 2017 suggest the possibility of an increase in the number of low-income families. Therefore, the SNAP initiatives of serving at least one in every four Americans might not be ideal in the alleviation of hunger across the U.S. The institutional data presented above point to the need for the program officials to launch far and wide campaigns to reach more families living in low-income and poor households.
The need to reach more low-income and poor earners in the country is the main objective of the SNAP as presented by the needs assessment on the program. However, the personnel in the program ought to create more awareness among people on how to apply for the SNAP benefits, the types of families legible for the benefits and the location of the SNAP offices where the families can get the help they require (Hyer, Tocce, & Steinauer, 2017). Financial resources and the demographic information on the American population are the two principal resources whose utilization stands a great chance of meeting the needs identified in the assessment. The agency gets funding from profit, public and non-profit organizations and with the agency’s priority of being a sound steward of the taxpayers’ dollars, the program ought to replicate the same and address the needs of the low-income earners (Everson, 2017). Apart from addressing the untapped needs, the program ought to utilize the financial, information and technological resources it has on streamlining the current outreach initiatives. There is need to; obtain detailed information about fluctuations in the household expenses and income, explore family networks as a good coping strategy. Also, SNAP should determine the accuracy of the SNAP families’ perceptions of food prices at different stores at which they shop or to which they have access to, explore food access and proactive coping strategies to maintain strategies, etc. The officials of the program will employ data collection methods (e.g., focus group discussions, interviews, questionnaires, etc.) on the families under the SNAP to get the information that would streamline their current operations and the future initiatives (Hyer, Tocce, & Steinauer, 2017). Demographic characteristics and household composition of the participating families, employment status, household income and source of income are some of the additional information essential in addressing the needs identified in the assessment.
The needs assessment and the subsequent evaluation of the SNAP’s desire to cover more Americans would demand the inclusion of the current beneficiaries of the program, the federal government, the profit and non-profit organizations. As a stakeholder, the federal government provides both the demographic and financial resources essential in shaping the endeavors of the program (Hyer, Tocce, & Steinauer, 2017). For instance, the 2013 national census revealed data on the American population that showed a huge gap in the services offered by SNAP. Based on the population of the poor and low-income families across the country, the government ought to act in its capacity as the protector of the citizenry to increase its funding to the FNS hence loosening the budgetary constraints of the agency (Monette, Sullivan, & DeJong, 2013). The current beneficiaries of the SNAP initiatives would provide information essential in streamlining the future endeavors of the program, i.e., their responses would determine the strategies adopted by the program personnel to improve service delivery (Everson, 2017). The assessment ought to include the non-profit, profit and other institutions that work hand in hand with the agency to promote healthful diets and active lifestyles among those participating in the program.
The success of any organization, agency or program requires all the stakeholders pulling in the same direction. Also, the decision makers ought to adopt policies and decisions that foster the growth and expansion of the organization. Sometimes, the decision-makers and the stakeholders might have varying opinions on the operations of the program. However, all parties ought to be reminded of the key roles and priorities of the program, i.e., increasing access to nutrition and safe food for eligible people, helping to reduce the number of households with children that experience low food security, etc. (Monette, Sullivan, & DeJong, 2013). As the human service professionals, they must understand that their efforts must be focused on improving the lives of other humans in the society. As such, their efforts must know no boundaries regardless of their political ideologies. The realization of the core responsibilities and priorities of the program should play a key role in fostering interpersonal relationships between the stakeholders and decision makers, e.g., improved collaborative integration.
The human service organizations focus on improving the lives of members of populations in the society hence enabling them to perform at their highest capacity. The widespread democracy and liberalism ideologies in most societies in the world call for equality of all humans hence the formation of the human service agencies and programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). SNAP offers food stamp benefits to the eligible low-income families across the U.S. The program is regarded the largest in the domestic hunger safety net and works in partnership with other organizations and stakeholders to assist the legible families, e.g., they assist the low-income family to make sound decisions. However, the changing economic conditions in the country result in the change in the living standards of the Americans. Such changing needs demands for the periodic needs assessment surveys to help streamline the services offered by the program.
