Evaluation framework project for Epilepsy Queensland
Status: Completed February 2023
Client: Epilepsy Queensland
Background
Epilepsy Queensland is a non-profit organisation that provides support, information, counselling, education, training, and advocacy services to people with epilepsy and their families, schools, health professionals, and disability services. They are the peak consumer body for epilepsy in Queensland.
Beacon Strategies was engaged to develop an evaluation framework in a facilitated process collaboratively with Epilepsy Queensland, for one of its programmes. By doing so, the project aimed to allow for members of the team to be up-skilled regarding program design and evaluation as well as the organisation gaining clarity regarding what is required to undertake evaluation activities consistently across the organisation.
Approach:
We took a phased approach to this project in order to build up the staff’s evaluating competence and personalised framework.
Phase 1: Up-skilling the team — we worked alongside the team at Epilepsy Queensland to establish foundational knowledge in programme design (e.g. program logic) and evaluation concepts through our 'Evaluation Ready' workshop.
Phase 2: Define the programme — preparations were made for a half-day workshop, where we collaborated with the Epilepsy Queensland project team to create a ‘program logic’. Following this, we generated a draft program logic and solicited feedback from the team before finalising it.
Phase 3: Develop the evaluation framework — similar to Phase 2, we prepared for and facilitated a half-day workshop to collaboratively construct the evaluation framework with the Epilepsy Queensland project team. A draft evaluation framework was produced, and feedback was sought before it was finalised.
Phase 4: Operationalise evaluation activities — a conversation was facilitated with the Epilepsy Queensland project team to thoroughly discuss the evaluation framework and to create a list of tasks that would need to be developed to operationalise data collection and monitoring (i.e. develop data collection protocols, surveys, etc).
Phase 5: provide advice — we prepared a concise slide deck offering advice to Epilepsy Queensland leaders regarding the steps needed to consistently undertake evaluation across the organisation.
Project impact:
This project linked with our vision of "A more impactful social purpose sector" as it supported the Epilepsy Queensland team to up-skill team members in order to establish programs that would be accountable, transparent, and impactful. As they say, “teach a man to fish…”. Through ongoing evaluations using their new skills, organisations like Epilepsy Queensland can continuously refine their programs and services, leading to greater impact.
Project outcome:
Two products came out of this project:
Program Logic: The purpose of the programme logic was to serve as a comprehensive blueprint of the given program, outlining the planned processes, activities, outputs, and desired outcomes. It presented a clear and structured visual model that illustrated the causal relationships between these elements, aiding in understanding how the program's activities would lead to its expected results.
Evaluation Framework: The evaluation framework was an instrumental tool in assessing the program's effectiveness and impact. It established the criteria and methods for systematically collecting, analysing, and using data to understand the program's performance. By defining key metrics and indicators, it enabled stakeholders to measure progress towards goals, make data-informed decisions, and implement necessary adjustments to improve outcomes.
At Beacon Strategies we support not-for-profit organisations to undertake program evaluations to understand the impact their work is generating. Read more about how we support not-for-profit organisations to evaluate their programs and services here.
