All the activities in the previous sections, particularly the theory of change and the logic model, create a basis for thinking about how you will evaluate your program. The steps you have taken to develop your logic model and theory of change can help guide you in determining what sources of data you can use to show that your program is working and achieving its goals. This careful planning makes the job of collecting the proper data far easier. Looking forward and gathering your data as you go along is much more effective than going back and trying to find evidence for what you did. You can use your data in powerful ways to make a continued case for support of your program and help build your long-term success.

Evaluation as a whole is addressed in a later section, but from a program organization perspective, it is essential to think about your evaluation efforts as you organize your program so you can begin creating your success and sustaining your efforts in the long term. More importantly, however, you can use those data to help you determine if you need to make any adjustments in your programming along the way. If you are keeping track of daily attendance, for example, and you note that attendance has dropped off for a given activity or for an individual participant in the program, acting on that information quickly can help keep your program improving. Decreased program attendance may signal that you need to look at how a specific activity is structured or the kind of preparation the activity leader is doing. Looking into why a young person’s attendance in the program has dropped off may reveal structural issues (e.g., the program isn’t open late enough to close the gap between a family member’s work schedule and school) or personal issues (e.g., unchecked bullying in the program or health or family issues), some of which can be addressed by directing resources differently. Simple data points can yield powerful lessons.