Together with our partners, Powerful Families has developed evaluation tools and procedures to measure and report these outcomes: 

• The program's impact on participating families
• Its cost
• How closely it follows the peer-to-peer model and curriculum content
• How well partners and Casey Family Programs are collaborating with each other

The following Theory of Change model guides our evaluation of the program's impact on participating families:

Surveys are the main tool for measuring the Powerful Families' impact on participants, although we also use focus groups with small samples of participants. Participants fill out surveys following a timeline:

• A survey at the start of each cycle (in the first session)
• A survey at the end of each cycle (in the last session)
• A follow-up survey six to nine months after the cycle (by telephone)

We designed these surveys to measure any changes in social support; empowerment for change; engagement in positive financial management, advocacy, and leadership behaviors; and family stress, stability, and security. The risk for entering the child welfare system is a theoretical outcome, and it is not measured.

We encourage participants to take part in the evaluation, because their feedback is useful for improving the program and the information gained is essential to the program's success. But when people choose not to participate in the evaluation, it doesn't affect their participation in the program.

We measure program implementation fidelity (how closely it follows the peer-to-peer model and curriculum content) in several ways: participant surveys, brief surveys that group facilitators and parent leaders complete after each session, and a survey that community specialists complete after each cycle.

This last survey also measures the quality of the collaboration between Casey Family Programs and each partner agency. So does another survey, which partner agency directors and staff complete. With help from the partner agencies, Casey Family Programs tracks the program's costs.

To comment on the evaluation design, or if you don't find what you need, please contact us.