Sustaining Change

You didn’t invest all this energy into a program that fails to meet its objectives. Evaluation is an important step in your program planning and implementation. It might even be the most important step.

Assessing the activities, support, resources, and outcomes of your program will inform the YWC Program’s impact and identify improvements and opportunities for growth for future program development.

An evaluation plan should be developed as part of the initial program planning. This will help you examine the YWC Program indicators to program evaluation to determine what data you will need, as well as why, where, when and how the data will be collected.

Evaluation is a critical component in learning about the successes of the YWC program implementation.  However, collection of evaluation data can pose challenges. For example, it’s important to plan timing and buffers for evaluation and data collection that is aligned with what is happening in the school/community environment.

YWC implementation sites have shown success in collection of evaluation data with youth during celebration events.  End of year celebration events are important events that allow youth to come together with adult allies and public health staff to reflect on the year, celebrate success, and plan for the following academic year.  Celebration events help wrap up the program work for the academic year and provide excellent opportunities to collect feedback from youth and adults involved in the program.

In the YWC Program context, it also refers to the extent to which the program implementation is maintained within the school or community as part of its yearly activities.

When planning for sustainability, remember: