Stakeholders’ role in the Evaluation

            The stakeholders in my evaluation include the staff members, the program participants, and the director of the Department of Juvenile Services. I plan to conduct an interview with the staff members and the program participants. For the staff members, the interview questions would focus on their role in the program. The questions will also focus on how they are helping the program participants better themselves. The interview questions for the participants would be more reflective of their time at the program. I want to know how the program has helped them positively improve and learn accountability.

 Type of evaluation

            The type of evaluation that I am using for my study is the objective based approach. In short, this approach accepts the objectives of the organization as the outcomes without critique (Linfield & Posavac, 2019). For this approach it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to judge or critique the established objectives. The reason I chose this approach was because I didn’t want to focus on criticizing the Youth Empowerment Program. Working with youth can be a difficult task. This field of work it takes a lot of patience. I know the program won’t be able to reach everyone that participates in the program, but I want my study to highlight the positive outcomes of the program.

            This approach relates to my study because it allows me to conduct my evaluation without the possibility of having dysfunctional attitudes. I am currently in the process of meeting with the director of the Department of Juvenile services. I will assure the stakeholders that I am not there to judge them or criticize them. If the stakeholders see me as a threat, then the dysfunctional attitudes may rise. I will be focusing on the outcomes of the mission and objectives. I will also be focusing on the outcomes of the services. I want to evaluate how the services are helping the program achieve its objectives. The Youth Empowerment Program provides many vocational and education services to the participants.

Evaluation Questions

            My first evaluation question, how effective are the services in aiding in positive behavioral improvement and sticking to the objectives? With this question I am aiming to see how effective the vocational and education services are at aiding positive behavioral. Some of the objectives of the program include providing a safe and structural environment, increasing life skills, reinforce academic performance, and promote personal, social, and family growth and accountability.  I will be evaluating the effectiveness of the services provides to the participants. The Youth Empowerment Program should be adhering to their objective through the services provided.

            The second evaluation question I will be answering is how effectively is the staff trained to identify behavioral improvements in participants and assist in their treatment? The youth will participate in the program for 30-60 days. With question will help me gain information on how effective the training is. I want to identify whether the time duration is successful or not. Is 30-60 days not enough time for the participants to show improvements or does length of the program need to be extended?

How the type of evaluation aligns with the questions

            The type of evaluation I chose was the objective approach. As mentioned before, this approach allows me to accept the objectives of the organization as the outcomes without criticizing the program. The objective of the program will align with the services that are provided. If the objectives of the program line up, then I will be able to get answers for my two questions.

Data Collection Methods

            The first method I will be using in my evaluation is interviews. This method will allow me to have a connection with the staff member and participants. Interviewing the stakeholders will allow me to gain good insight about the program from two different perspectives. The staff members and participants have different perspective of the program. This is due to age, membership, and the position they are in. The participants may not see the services helping them. The participants may reject the help and be in denial of their problems. The staff members may experience burnout and have a negative view of the program. They may not see a reason to continue the program. The perspective could also be positive. Staff members may see the program as useful and can vouch that the program is reaching the youth. The participants may enjoy the services and activities. It’s important to consider all the stakeholders’ perspectives.

            To conduct interviews with stakeholders, evaluators must possess good interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills are traits you rely on when you interact and communicate with others (Herrity, 2023). Good interpersonal skills allow me to gain the trust of the stakeholders and will make the interview go smoothly. The stakeholders won’t see me as a threat to their program.

            The next method I will be using is observation. With this method I can observe the services and activities in real time. It will allow me to see how to participants and staff interact. I will be able to notice things and pick up on how the program operates. This method falls under the qualitative research method. This method will allow me to gain useful information without interrupting the program. The observation methods help me focus on the staff members and the participants.  

Research Method

            The best research method for my evaluation is the qualitative research method. Interviews and observations both fall under this research method. Qualitative methods provide the evaluator with the ability to gain an in-depth understanding of a program or process (Qualitative evaluation: Project and program evaluation: Washington State University, n.d.). I will be able to gain an in-depth understanding through conducting interviews with the stakeholder and doing observations. Using quantitative measures would not work for my study. With people, you can’t measure their experience and perspectives using with numbers.

Rationale for choosing Research Methods

            This research method will work best in addressing my 2-evaluation question because it will help to measure the outcome of the program. Like I mention before it will help be gain insightful information about the program. Using this method help me address the objective of the program and understand the training process that the staff members go through.

 References

Herrity, J. (2023, September 7). Interpersonal skills: Definitions, examples and how to improve. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/interpersonal-skills

Qualitative evaluation: Project and program evaluation: Washington State University. Project and Program Evaluation. (n.d.). https://ppe.cw.wsu.edu/qualitative-evaluation/

Linfield, K., & Posavac, E. (2019). Program evaluation methods and case studies (Ninth ed.).