Resources
Links to Australian evaluation resources
Reconnect Action Research Kit
This kit is designed to explain Action Research and how it 'fits' into the Reconnect Program. It provides practical examples and tools for applying Action Research. It also offers information to services about other resources that can help them to incorporate Action Research as part of their work practices.
Project Planning and Evaluation Wizard
The Project Planning and Evaluation Wizard (PEW) is a software tool designed to assist project officers working on primary health care and health promotion projects to develop: a case for their projects; project plans and evaluation plans; and project reports.
Useful web links and resources on Action Research and evaluation from the Stronger Families Learning Exchange.
International resources on project evaluation
Resources for Methods in Evaluation and Social Research
This page lists resources for methods in evaluation and social research. The focus is on "how-to" do evaluation research and the methods used: surveys, focus groups, sampling, interviews, and other methods. Most of these links are to resources that can be read over the web.
Evaluation Tipsheets
This is an index to a list of evaluation tip sheets covering a range of topics from focus groups to how many answer options should be included in a question.
Evaluating comprehensive community change
A report from a research and evaluation conference on measuring comprehensive community change.
Taking Stock: A Practical Guide to Evaluating Your Own Programs
A practical guide to program evaluation written for community-based organisations providing information that can put to immediate use to help improve programs. This manual focuses on internal evaluation. The information in this manual should better prepare program staff to design and carry out a program evaluation.
Early Childhood Programs and Evaluation
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange published by the Harvard Family Research Project charts the course of early childhood programming and evaluation over nearly half a century. Contributing authors offer a range of views on how best to communicate the importance of investing in a child's early years and how to improve early childhood programs and policies.
Action Research resources
Wadsworth, Y. (1998) What is Participatory Action Research?, Action Research International, Paper 2. www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/ari/p-ywadsworth98.html
Wadsworth, Y. (1997) Do it Yourself Social Research, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Wadsworth, Y. (1997) Everyday Evaluation on the Run, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (2001) Handbook of Action Research: participative inquiry and practice, Sage, London.
Community development
The Asset-Based Community Development Institute
The ABCD Institute spreads its findings on capacity-building community development in two ways: (1) through extensive and substantial interactions with community builders, and (2) by producing practical resources and tools for community builders to identify, nurture, and mobilise neighbourhood assets.
The Community
Tool Box
The Tool Box provides practical
information to support your work in promoting community
health and development, created
and maintained by the Work Group on Health Promotion
and Community Development at the University of
Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas (USA).
- Other Community Development resources on the CAFCA site.
Early Childhood resources
A
Review of the Early Childhood Literature (PDF
196K)
The Centre for Community Child Health
(CCCH), Canberra, ACT: Department of
Family and Community Services, 2000
The current international debate about the
importance of the early years of life for subsequent
health, development and well-being in childhood,
adolescence and adult life, has focused attention
on the growing literature in this area. This
research has the potential to impact on the
way government systems deliver services to
children and families. This document briefly
reviews selected literature relating to the
major risk and protective factors that may
influence children’s
developmental outcomes in the preschool years.
It then reviews selected studies of the preventive
and early interventions that may impact on
these outcomes.
Team
Around the Child: Working together in early childhood
intervention
Written by Sue Davies and members of the Kurrajong
Early Intervention team from Kurrajong
Early Intervention Service as part of the Invest
to Grow Rural Beginnings Project. This book is designed
to support early childhood intervention professionals,
particularly those professionals operating in rural
and isolated areas throughout Australia. This book
will allow other professionals and services to take
the information and work that Kurrajong Early Intervention
Service has found to be successful and incorporate
it into their own service and practice. An assessment
tool is included on disc.
National Evaluation
of Sure Start (NESS)
The evaluation will study the effectiveness of all
Sure Start Programmes in England (524 programmes) and
will last for 6 years. Sure
Start represents a unique approach to early intervention
for children 0-4, their families, and communities.
Review of the Early Intervention Parenting Program
and Good Beginnings prototypes: volume 1: final
report.
Canberra, ACT: Department of Family and Community Services,
2004, 77p, and Online (PDF 866K)
This final report outlines the
key findings and issues arising from a review of the
Early Intervention Parenting Program (EIP) and Good
Beginnings Prototype (GBP), the two main sub-components
of the Child Abuse Prevention Program. EIP and GBP
projects are aimed at child abuse prevention, improved
parenting and strengthening families, with a key focus
being to meet the special needs of families in rural
and remote areas; Indigenous families; and families
from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
The purpose of the review was to consider the effectiveness
of the program against its current guidelines and to
develop a strategic framework for the program that
ensures it is aligned with the Department's current
policy directions and priorities in particular, the
National Agenda for Early Childhood. Volume 2 of the
report includes the literature review and the project
profiles.
The efficacy of early childhood interventions
Report prepared for the Australian Government Department
of Family and Community Services
Sarah Wise, Lisa da Silva, Elizabeth Webster and
Ann Sanson
The publication reviews selected early childhood
interventions and provide further information about
cost-benefit evaluations in a way that is relevant
to Australian policy makers. In this current review,
108 national and international interventions with
published evaluation data were identified from a
systematic search of relevant electronic databases,
from which 32 were selected for review. In selecting
these 32 programs, priority was given to programs
that were well researched, or where a cost-benefit
analysis had been conducted. Large-scale, well-established
programs were also given priority, as were programs
where the ultimate target population was the child.
The 32 selected programs were classified into five
clusters according to type of program, foci, location
and focal child age. The adequacy of design and implementation
of the programs, the evaluation methodologies as
well as the effectiveness of interventions are discussed
in this report.
- Other Early
Childhood resources on the CAFCA site.