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How to evaluate community development – an introduction

How well are you really doing? Where could you improve – and how?


Only if you know how to monitor and evaluate community development initiatives can you be sure how well they are working – and, just as important, what is not.

This means you need systems to track what you are doing. Based on what they reveal, you can properly judge if you are doing as well as you hoped. Otherwise you are at a terrible disadvantage – what could be more frustrating than putting in months, maybe years of effort without real reward, either for you or the communities you serve?

In this introductory workshop you examine the fundamentals by putting what you learn into effect. In this way you become better at raising funds for community projects and the quality of your work improves dramatically.

Key topics you explore are:

Your trainer

Cathy SharpCathy Sharp was formerly Research Manager for Communities Scotland. Before becoming an independent evaluator, Cathy managed Communities Scotland's £850,000 annual community evaluation and research programme. She's passionate about the need to make your evaluations work for the communities you help.

What delegates say about this course and trainer

"A really useful day.  Gained new ideas on positive approaches to evaluation and inclusive ways to evaluate with participants."
Matthew Palmer, Community Development Officer, Valleys to Coast

"Good day & useful ideas expressed."
Zarka Nazir, Programme Assistant, Pendle Partnership

"The contents of the course could easily fit into 2 days. The trainer did well in getting across a whole lot of information."
Theo Fasoyiro, Community Development Officer, London Borough of Croydon

"A superb day.  Time flew by.  Cathy had a huge amount of enthusiasm and this fed through the group.  Everyone was involved - a really positive experience.  Thank you!"
Janet Neale, Project Officer - Community Learning, Warwickshire County Council

"The course took an excellent practical approach, encouraging lots of creative thinking in the area and provoking many practical applications."
Paul Jackson, Active Communities and Neighbourhoods Manager, London Borough of Lambeth

What I picked up - and did - after this course

John Davies, Community Development Officer for Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations, wrote in to tell us the impact this course had on his work.

"Dear Rod,
I enjoyed the day and found it to be useful for me in the work I do. Your trainer managed to make the day relevant and there for easier to relate to.

I think the one most important thing I found on the day was the importance of evaluation. What form the evaluation will take needs to be looked at seriously at the start of any project and the planning for any piece of work, too often it is treated as an add on at the end. I had not realised quite how much this can shape what you do and how it influences the way you proceed with the project. This can include questioning is this the best way to proceed.

Rather than make any sudden changes in the way I work I have incorporated what I learned on the day into the way I work.

Some of the changes I have made are to ask myself, or whoever else is involved more questions before I embark on any new piece of work, especially what is needed and what is expect when it will be evaluated. I think this helps me to be more effective in what I do. I think this in turn has led to me being more confident about making it relevant, (knowing why I am doing it, not just because someone said to).

Thanks for the day,
Regards
John"


And Claire Ryan from Sure Start Somerstown in Portsmouth also found the day really useful as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer. Here's how:

"In the months after attending the course, I found the course booklet very helpful. As an evaluator, the sections I found particularly useful to me were those on participatory and realist evaluation, which are approaches that we already use, but the booklet gave me more information.

Also useful were the sections on developing indicators, and the list of evaluation resources at the back of the book."



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