Presenting Data Effectively is a step-by-step guide to making research results more useful and interesting. This book provides guiding principles for designing effective data presentations and reports.

Edutainment - the mixture of education and entertainment ranging from video games to soap operas, harnesses the power of entertainment to promote social change. This publication focuses on unique communications-centered approaches to social change and introduces basic concepts, strategies, and theories supporting these strategies, describing challenges and lessons learned, especially related to strategic planning and evaluation.  It raises questions about how to measure the complexity of social change processes, as well as outcomes such as movement building, enabling environments, or

This 75-page manual is written for larger organizations that involve multiple people in the evaluation process. Relatively dense and academic, it provides users with practical guidelines for conducting a participatory evaluation that, as presented, is particularly relevant to process evaluations. The methodology focuses on the analysis of program activities and strategies, which have been implemented, and on the development of "lessons learned" for the future, which may be imposed upon many organizations doing civic engagement. The first 15 pages set up basic principles of participatory

"In so many evaluations," said a program officer, "no one thinks to ask the users." Participatory action research offers grantmakers a way to do so. It engages all parties in all aspects of an evaluation, from defining the problem to gathering and analyzing data to preparing recommendations. In this guide, learn about a unique evaluation method and how grantmakers used it to evaluate programs in agriculture, early childhood development, and immigration. Highlights of this guide include: ensuring a rigorous approach and objective results; developing trusting partnerships as part of an

Outcome Harvesting is a method that enables evaluators, grant makers, and managers to identify, formulate, verify, and make sense of outcomes while acknowledging the complexities of social change projects. Unlike some evaluation methods, Outcome Harvesting does not measure progress towards predetermined outcomes, but rather collects evidence of what has been achieved, and works backward to determine whether and how the project or intervention contributed to the change. Using Outcome Harvesting, the evaluator or harvester gleans information from reports, personal interviews, and other sources

When Flint Youth Theatre began planning for a new play addressing the local and national problem of school violence, it had no idea that, in the process of developing the project, its own community would experience a devastating elementary school shooting. A year after the tragedy, the play ...My Soul to Take, written by artistic director and playwright William Ward, became a focal point for fresh attention on this persistent and painful issue. The play, stylistically atypical of most youth theater in its nonlinear, collage style and its treatment of the subject, captured a swirl of opinions

Artist Rha Goddess's Hip Hop Mental Health Project (HHMHP) seeks to contribute to shifting the cultural paradigm of shame and alienation surrounding mental illness, and satisfy a need for a SAFE place to confront the issue and obtain vital information. Through the integration of performance and dialogue, the HHMHP works to impact public discourse and values among urban communities in a way that educates about the signs, symptoms, and spiraling course of mental illness, and to explore possible solutions to the contributing life stressors of societal stigma and the difficulties of an overtaxed

This tool serves as a model to align values, actions, and measures of progress for State Art Agencies. In table form, it lays out a generic base for locating concepts of participation within a framework of concepts of public value and motivating values of different groups. The table can serve as a basis for developing the types of outcomes and measures related to State Art Agencies' actions to broaden, deepen and diversify creators, stewards and spectators/participants. Dwyer adapted this tool as a worksheet for use by a broad range of organizations.  See Worksheet to Define Indicators with

What is the difference between outputs and outcomes? Between outcomes and impact? "Measuring What Matters: The Challenge of Quantifying Social Change" steers clear of jargon and offers an accessible evaluation framework for practitioners. The Metropolitan Group's methodology approaches evaluation as a spectrum of indicators ranging from Action measures: "What we put in", "What we create" to Result measures: "What happens", "What difference it makes." Gathering data to support each measurement category becomes more of a challenge as you move across the continuum from action measures to

This report provides a comprehensive overview and assessment of the approaches that are currently employed in impact assessment of media as a socially valuable tool. "Social value," in this context, is described in terms of outcomes that extend beyond financial measures of success such as improving the well-being of individuals and communities. This report seeks to identify relevant analytical approaches, methodologies, and metrics for assessing media's social impact that can inform further work in this area and that appear particularly promising.