It is essential that organizations deliver effective programs that meet the needs of their communities. Program evaluation is a critical component for any community organization. Research a program of a community organization in your area. Describe the organization and the program. Assume that you have been hired to evaluate this program. Using the text and outside resources, create a program evaluation methodology, including a needs assessment. Support your choice of methodology and analyze how this methodology would best fit the organization and the community. Finally, discuss how the results of your evaluation will affect the organization and propose changes to the program that you think would help benefit the community. Your paper should adhere to APA formatting and be at least 1500 words.
The organization I will use is the Schenectady Jewish Community Center. Here are some resources:
Chapter 7: Participatory Research
Chapter 8: Planning and Implementation
Chapter 9: Management and Evaluation
Appendix A: Details of Participatory Research Strategies
Carroll-Scott, A., Toy, P., Wyn, R., Zane, J. I., & Wallace, S.P. (2012). Results from the data & democracy initiative to enhance community-based organization data and research capacity. American Journal of Public Health, 102(7), 1384-1391.
Pasick, R., Oliva, G., Goldstein, E., Nguyen, T. (2010). Community-engaged research with community–based organizations: A resource manual for UCSF researchers. From the Series: UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) resource manuals and guides to community-engaged research (Fleisher, P. ed.). San Francisco, California: Clinical Translational Science Institute Community Engagment Program, University of California San Francisco. Retrieved from http://accelerate.ucsf.edu/files/CE/manual_for_res…
Timberlake, M., Sanderson, M.R., Ma, X., Derudder, B., Winitzky, J., & Witlox, F. (2012). Testing a global city hypothesis: An assessment of polarization across US cities. City & Community, 11(1), 74-93.
A proper approach to achieving this is incorporating a community-engaged research design approach that integrates interviews would help gather data and enlighten the leaders about the community members’ views regarding ASEP. According to Pasick, Oliva, Goldstein, and Nguyen (2010) and McKnight and McKnight Plummer (2015), community-engaged research encourages the investigator to engage with the stakeholders to acquire knowledge and build trust. In this case, the stakeholders impacted by the ASEP are staff members in the non-profit and people impacted by the program, including children, parents, community organizations, and support groups or individuals. Therefore, this approach matches the community aspect that the Schenectady JCC reinforces. The method would facilitate developing a needs assessment that allows the organization to identify whether the program meets the set objectives and stakeholders’ expectations. Altogether
