Program evaluations are completed for many different reasons—to demonstrate effectiveness for funding, to evaluate strengths and weaknesses for improvement, to determine allocation of limited resources, or simply to document program accomplishments or activities. The first step in program evaluation is to identify the purpose for the evaluation, followed closely by the identification of stakeholders who will be affected by it. Stakeholders include everyone who is affected by and/or will be consumers of the evaluation results.
Throughout this course, you will complete an evaluation report for a social work program, based on a scenario and series of simulation experiences. This report will detail an evaluation plan for a program at the fictional Life House social work agency. Although your Final Evaluation Report is not due until Week 10, you will work on components of this project each week.
For this Assignment, imagine that you are an evaluation consultant and have just received a program evaluation consultation request from the executive director of the Life House social work agency. You will need to review the information provided in the request and use it to outline the various groups and stakeholders who would be involved in the program evaluation process. This will help you define the scope of work involved and present a preliminary proposal, including follow-up questions, to the executive director in a video call next week.
To Prepare
**Review the email from Life House and the attached Life House informational brochure.
**As you review the Life House information and the email, consider the various stakeholders at the agency, including the diverse perspectives and possibly competing goals that will influence your approach to evaluation.
Submit a 2-page paper that addresses the following:
**List the stakeholder groups for the Life House agency. Explain your groupings.
**Looking at your list, which groups would you engage first and why?
**How would you engage the different stakeholders to build relationships and achieve your desired results?
**How does each stakeholder contribute to an evaluation?
**Why is it important to consider the perspective of each stakeholder?
