Program Evaluation Environmental Health

Environmental Health

Program evaluation refers to the systematic assessment of data on outcomes, characteristics, and activities of a program with the aim of improving the effectiveness of the said program (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n. d.). Program evaluation can also help demonstrate the impact of a program in order to make decisions about the program. Different stages or aspects of a program are assesses by various types of evaluation. The evaluation strategy that I intend to use for my developed program will be outcome evaluation.

This is more so the case given that my program is already developed and is unlikely to change.

According to Martin (2015), outcome evaluation is used following the completion of a program to assess the short and long-term effects of program participation or overall performance. In addition, outcome evaluation helps determine whether the program had an impact on the target population. For instance outcome evaluation happens to be useful in my program in the determination of changes in behaviors, attitudes, knowledge and skills among low-income families.

It would be prudent to note that program evaluation often requires skills, time, and resources to ensure that it is effective. However, deficiencies could be encountered on the expert knowledge, resources and time fronts. For this reason, Martin (2015) suggests that evaluating a program can be challenging. The author further suggest that it is important to learn about evaluation early so as to reap the benefits of a well-planned evaluation. There are various ways through which the said barriers can be minimized. For instance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.) suggests that it is important to allocate approximately 10% of the total health promotion financial resources to evaluation. To develop expertise in the evaluation, education infrastructure and training should be established (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n. d.). Martin (2015) suggest that evaluation should be completed before the end of a program. In addition, the author further observes that evaluations should be planned before the main evaluation to help save time during actual evaluation.