Needs Assessment, Process and Outcome Evaluation:

What Do They Mean?

Evaluation is critical to understanding, clarifying and supporting your coalition's efforts. Coalitions are more likely to be successful if they have a comprehensive evaluation plan that links to their strategic plan/logic model. However, what is a process evaluation and how is that different from an outcome evaluation? And do you really need a needs assessment?

Below, are answers to these questions, definitions of these different evaluation functions, and an understanding of how they link together.

Needs assessment
Also called a context evaluation, a needs assessment is a type of evaluation that tries to understand the context within which a coalition operates. It is a comprehensive description of your target community (however your coalition defines “community”). Many times, a needs assessment is performed in the beginning stages of a coalition's development to better understand the community and to determine in what ways a coalition can best serve its community in addressing its local ATOD problems.

For some, this may mean a risk and protective factor assessment. For others it may be a way to understand the types of substance abuse prevention, treatment and recovery programs, practices and policies that exist within the community. It can also be an assessment of the demographic characteristics of your community. Think of a needs assessment as a way to get the lay of the land. With information from a needs assessment, your coalition can target real needs within the community, ensure that there is no duplication of effort, and fully understand the resources that exist to implement desired programs, practices and polices.

Additionally, a needs assessment can help your coalition determine resource gaps that will need to be filled in order to accomplish your coalition's goals. Your coalition is not likely to be successful if it does not have this information because the information gathered is critical to your planning efforts. Your logic model/strategic plan needs to be built on accurate information gathered in your needs assessment.

However, needs assessments also occur at other times besides the beginning of a coalition's development. You should view needs assessment as a constant process. Communities and coalitions are not static entities. They change and develop over time. Critical to coalition effectiveness is a continuous understanding of its community's strengths, needs, resources and make-up. This can occur through regular (yearly or biannual) assessments of the community. In this way, your coalition will always be responsive to your community in a proactive and effective manner.

Process evaluation
This type of evaluation focuses on examining and describing your coalition and its efforts. It asks how well your coalition is functioning, including its management and organizational processes and the programs, practices and policies it has implemented. A process evaluation describes the activities your coalition has engaged in – the tasks it has performed, the people/organizations/groups is has served/impacted, and the scope of the various efforts it has initiated.

It can provide a broader understanding of information gathered in an outcome evaluation. It is one thing to say that your coalition reduced 30-day use of alcohol among 10th graders by 10 percent from Year 1 to Year 3. It's another to say exactly what your coalition did to accomplish this success. Process evaluation is key to helping your coalition demonstrate that its efforts contributed to positive changes within your community. Process evaluations are also critical because information from this type of evaluation can help with program monitoring. In conjunction with needs assessment data, it can help you improve/adjust your efforts over time, resulting in continuous improvement of functioning and greater likelihood of reaching desired goals.

Outcome evaluation
The purpose of an outcome evaluation is to determine how successful your given strategies have been in impacting your intended goals. Outcome evaluations refer to both short-term and long-term effects of the work your coalition performs. What changes did your coalition expect to impact and did you meet your goals? Did you accomplish what you set out to do? These are the questions asked in an outcome evaluation.

If your coalition's aim was to reduce alcohol outlet density within your community, you must have data related to this. For example, how many alcohol retailers are in business within a 5-mile radius from Year 1 of your initiative to Year 5 of your initiative? Additionally, what other impacts did your coalition's efforts have in your community? Sometimes, we set out to target specific goals but find out that we also impacted other areas as well. Coalition success can be defined in many ways and outcome evaluation information is critical to determining the fruits of your labor.

Through the use of these three types of evaluations, your coalition can gather invaluable information related to your coalition's efforts. As they say, knowledge is power, and the information gathered through the evaluation process is very powerful. It can increase your effectiveness as a coalition, help you celebrate your successes, and provide evidence to sustain and expand your efforts.

For more information on the differences among needs assessments, process evaluations and outcome evaluations, one resource is the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Handbook, which can be downloaded at no charge.

Evelyn Yang is the Manager of Evaluation and Research for CADCA's National Coalition Institute. You may write to her at eyang@cadca.org.