When assessing Counseling and Outreach Programs of The Salvation Army, the choice of measures is the key in evaluating program impact.
- Participants Evaluated: Target population comprises clients who require mental health care services and persons experiencing homelessness who are offered temporary shelter. They should be assessed on their current mental health, housing situation, and employment status.
- Staff Administering Evaluations: Evaluations should be conducted by trained program staff, including case managers and counselors, to maintain consistency and reliability. Staff should have knowledge of qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques.
- Number of Participants: The evaluation should strive to achieve an adequate sample size depending on the clientele of the program. Employing principle of stratified random sampling helps to get better demographic samples which in turn give the study more credibility.
- Assessment Schedule: An initial assessment should be made before the start of the program, the second should be taken halfway through the program and the third, final assessment should be done at the end of the program, while the follow-ups should be done after 6 and 12 months of program completion. This schedule makes it possible to document short-term and long-term results.
- Validity of Instruments: There is ample validity evidence for instruments like the PHQ-9 used for mental health screening (Fink 2014). Likewise, the Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix was also verified for evaluating housing stability and self sufficiency (Fink 2014).
- Reliability of Instruments: The PHQ-9 shows good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.8) (Fink 2014). The Self-Sufficiency Matrix also has acceptable and statistically significant inter-rater reliability (Fink, 2014).
- Cost of Instruments: The PHQ-9 is in the public domain and is therefore relatively inexpensive compared to other self-report measures. The Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix is also easy to find. These options help to reduce expenses and at the same time guarantee effective data gathering. Other necessary expenses such as client satisfaction surveys can also be created internally to cut further costs.
Thus, the utilization of well-developed and standardized tools that will be completed by the trained personnel at the specified intervals will allow to gain deeper understanding of the program’s success and at the same time be cost efficient for The Salvation Army.
References
Fink, A. (2014). Evaluation fundamentals: Insights into program effectiveness, quality, and value. Sage Publications.
