"Be Prepared."
— Boy Scout Motto


Preparing Your Program

Good planning is essential not only to your program’s success, but also to your ability to prove its success. Communities involved in local tobacco control have priorities for what they would like to accomplish based on the unique needs of their populations and cultures. Your program should contain measurements, or benchmarks, for judging how well it’s working toward these priorities. It is important that the population being served and those dedicating time and money see that the program is succeeding.

Here are some key tasks you should accomplish early that will make evaluating your program a snap. Click on each for more.

Who will conduct the evaluation?1
As part of your planning, consider the type of person best suited to conduct the evaluation. The CDC suggests that a good evaluator have these characteristics:
•
Has experience in the type of evaluation needed.
•
 Is comfortable with qualitative and quantitative data sources and analysis.
•
 Is able to work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
•
 Can develop innovative approaches to evaluation while considering the realities affecting a program (e.g., a small budget).
•
 Incorporates evaluation into all program activities.
•
 Understands both the potential benefits and risks of evaluation
•
 Educates program personnel about designing and conducting the evaluation.
•
 Will give staff the full findings (i.e., will not gloss over or fail to report certain findings for any reason).
•
 Has strong coordination and organization skills.
•
 Explains material clearly and patiently.
•
 Respects all levels of personnel.
•
 Communicates well with key personnel.
•
 Exhibits cultural competency.
•
 Delivers reports and protocols on time.

--------------------
1. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2001). Introduction. In Introduction to program evaluation for comprehensive tobacco control programs (pp. 5-13). Atlanta, GA: the Author.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/evaluation_manual/introduction.html
 
Search TTAC