Behavioral Science

Evaluation is Key

Why Evaluate?

Helpful articles for evaluation | Helpful Tools for evaluating programs

Evaluation is a key part of any injury prevention program or intervention.   Evaluation can have several components, for example, formative, process, impact, and outcome evaluations, which enable one to determine the effectiveness of, and thereby improve programs and interventions.

As summarized by Capwell, Butterfoss, and Francisco (2000), evaluation allows us to:

• Determine Achievement of Objectives
• Improve Program Implementation
• Provide Accountability
• Increase Community Support
• Contribute to Scientific Base
• Inform Policy Decisions, and
• Decide on Future Directions

Evaluation of injury interventions is beneficial to the individual program or intervention, the community of researchers, and the public whose lives are positively impacted by successful injury research. Evaluation provides unique information that can help refine a program or intervention and garner support for the program.  For all injury programs, particularly the "young field" of violence prevention, evaluating existing programs is an important step that should be included from the beginning of program development.

Helpful articles for evaluation

• Evaluation in Practice: Why Evaluate?
  Capwell, EM, Butterfoss, F, Francisco, VT
  Health Promotion Practice, January 2000: Vol. 1, No. 1, 15-20.

• Using Participatory Research to Plan Evaluation in Violence Prevention
  Hausman, AJ, Becker, J
  Health Promotion Practice, October 2000: Vol. 1, No. 4, 331-340.

• Evaluation Activities to Strengthen an Injury Prevention Resource Center for Urban Families
  McDonald, EM, Gielen, AC, Trifiletti, LB, Andrews, JS, Serwint, JR, Wilson, MEH
  Health Promotion Practice, April 2003: Vol. 4, No. 2, pg. 129-137

> Return to Top

Helpful Tools for evaluating programs

• Demonstrating your Program's Worth
  (The hard copy is currently unavailable, however a pdf version can be downloaded)
  Thompson NJ, McClintock HO. Demonstrating Your Program's Worth: A Primer on Evaluation for Programs To Prevent Unintentional Injury. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 1998.

• CDC Evaluation Working Group
  Provides a framework for program evaluation and other resources. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health. MMWR 1999; 48(No. RR-11).

• Community Toolbox: Bringing Solutions to Light
  From the University of Kansas, this provides information on evaluating under "Learn a Skill", "Plan the Work", and "Solve a Problem".

• W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Toolkit
  A guide to design an effective and useful evaluation.

• W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook
  Provides a framework for thinking through evaluation of programs.

• Making Health Communication Programs Work
  A Planner's Guide- From U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute.  NCI Publication No. 02-5145.  Revised December 2001, Printed September 2002.  A guide to planning, developing, implementing and evaluating Health Communication Programs.

• The Prevention Institute
  Tools include: "Spectrum of Prevention", "Developing an Effective Coalition: An Eight Step Guide", "Collaboration Math: Enhancing the Effectiveness of Multidisciplinary Collaboration", "The Tension of Turf: Making it Work for the Coalition", and "Evolution of Effective Prevention Diagnostic Scale."

> Return to Top