Workshop 3: Evaluation for social change - traps, gaps & victory laps (Friday 2 October)

Evaluation asks questions that are fundamental to evidence-based decision making in government. How's it going? Is it working? Why (or why not)? Where to from here?

Done well, evaluation can be a very rewarding line of work that allows you, the researcher, to play a significant role in shaping and measuring social progress.

However, evaluation can also be a tricky business. Big questions, multiple research methods and complex stakeholder relationships are just the beginning, and there’s often a lot at stake.

This workshop is designed as an introductory to intermediate session for researchers who want to become evaluators and evaluators who want to refine their craft.

It will cover things like:

• designing evaluation frameworks using the ‘program logic’ approach
• different types of evaluation - process, outcome, impact etc
• planning your evaluation approach, including methods like desktop research, analysis of existing data, stakeholder consultation and expert comment
• managing evaluation projects – from the simple to the complex
• bringing it all together – analysis and generation of evidence-based recommendations
• the finished product – writing reports to a publishable standard
• engaging and collaborating with clients who are new to research and evaluation (eg policy officers, program managers)
• a brief wrap of the highlights from the September 2009 Australasian Evaluation Society Conference.

Workshop attendees can send through inquiries or specific questions in advance to drintoul@urbis.com.au.

The workshops are staying at the bargain (early bird) price of $352 for AMSRS members / $440 for non-members. Click here to register now.

About the presenters:

Alison Wallace is one of Australia’s leading evaluators and is chairing the Evaluation parallel session on Thursday morning. As the National Director of Social Planning and Social Research at Urbis, she has lead dozens of large and high profile evaluations over the last 20 years in fields such as children’s services, homelessness, mental health, family violence, aged care, Indigenous health, law reform and education.

Duncan Rintoul has worked with Alison for the last nine years and is co-Chairing the 100 Stories conference. He has run training for the UNSW School of Social Science and the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and won the 2005 George Camakaris award for his AMSRS conference paper Not for prophesy: the impact of social research and evaluation on not-for-profit organisations.