Evaluating Impact: FULL PROGRAMME [IN PERSON]
Thu 16 Nov 2023 09:30 - Thu 25 Jan 2024 16:30
Causeway Tower, 9 James Street South, Belfast, BT2 7GA
Description
‘Evaluating Impact in the Community and Voluntary Sector’ Training Programme
Evaluation involves asking questions about the impact of a project, programme or service. It can help generate insights on what has changed for people and families or help to identify areas where a service can be improved.
The Evaluating Impact in the Community and Voluntary Sector training programme has been developed for practitioners and service providers to determine the impact of their initiatives concretely and realistically. It will bring participants together to deep dive into proven processes, dynamic insights from impactful projects, with hands-on practical sessions.
Who is the programme for?
This programme has been designed in such a way that those new to evaluation and those with experience evaluating projects can benefit. It is aimed at project staff, service leads, and evaluation teams in the community and voluntary / non-profit sector who need to understand the basics of evaluation and for those who need skills that support them to analyse and report on data.
Session details
Evaluating Impact: session 1 - An Introduction
In the first of 3 sessions, this introductory training course provides a basic overview of evaluation for organisations that want to begin demonstrating their impact.
You may feel that your intervention or service is having a positive impact on the people you want to benefit, and you may be gathering some evidence or data already. But you may not know how to use that evidence to prove you are making a difference or even if the interventions you are providing are the right ones to achieve your aims.
This introductory training course will help you think about how to measure what you are doing in a meaningful way.
What will be covered in this session?
- Understanding the essentials of evaluation
- Outcomes & Outputs: what are they and why do they matter?
- If-Then Relationships: how do you know that your activities are achieving the outcome you expect?
- Indicators: how do you know it is working?
What will you learn?
The training is divided into theory and practice. You will gain practical experience by applying learnings to your unique setting or service. You will also take away with you:
- The ability to identify outputs, outcomes and indicators of success for your service
- Knowledge of how to articulate the ‘theory of change’ of your service
Session dates
Thursday 16th November 9:30-16:30
Evaluating Impact: session 2 - The Nuts and Bolts of Evaluation
In the second of 3 sessions, this training course will build on the learning from Session 1 – an Introduction, by exploring evaluation processes in more detail. You will find out more about how to gather the right data and evidence of your impact, the best way of analysing and interpreting the evidence, and how to create a plan to measure your impact.
What will be covered in this session?
- What to evaluate at different stages of your work
- Asking the right questions
- Data gathering methods
- Qualitative and quantitative evaluation: choosing the right method for the situation
- Developing an evaluation plan
What will you learn?
The training is divided into theory and practice. You will gain practical experience by applying learnings to your unique setting or service. You will also take away with you:
• The skills to choose the right evaluation method at different stages of your work
• An understanding of how to develop an evaluation plan
Session dates:
Thursday 7th December 09:30-16:30
Evaluating Impact: session 3 Telling the Story of your Data
The third and final session of this training programme will build on the learning from Session 1 – an Introduction, and Session 2 – the Nuts and Bolts of Evaluation. You will find out about how use your evidence to demonstrate that what you are doing is making a difference. You will learn how to communicate your impact effectively to funders, your community, the media and other stakeholders.
What will be covered in this session?
- What to do with your data: Collating, coding, theming and analysing data
- Using quantitative data: How do you tell the story of your numbers?
- Reporting: Who needs to know what?
- Learn to tell your story so people listen
What will I learn?
The training is divided into theory and practice. You will gain practical experience by applying learnings to your unique setting or service. You will also take away with you:
· The skills to analyse your data and tell the story of your evaluation findings.
Session dates
Thursday 25th January 2024: 09:30-16:30
This programme has been developed in partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund, Dormant Accounts Fund.
Location
Causeway Tower, 9 James Street South, Belfast, BT2 7GA