What do we mean by refining the intervention?
___Refining the intervention is the process of making your work more effective by using evaluation information
___Key reflection questions include:
- What are we seeing?
- What does it mean?
- What are the implications for improvement?
Why should you use your evaluation research to refine the intervention?
___Understanding and improving your work is one of the main purposes of evaluation
When should you refine the intervention?
___Throughout the life of an intervention or program
___When it’s clear that what you’re doing isn’t working
___When participants are dropping out at a high rate
___Between sessions of a time-limited or sequential program
___When funders or participants ask you to adjust some aspect(s) of your program
___When funding or other resources are reduced
___When the goal or issue changes character
Who should be involved in refining the intervention?
___Participants
___Staff members, paid or volunteer
___People who are directly or indirectly involved in implementing or supporting your work
___Those who led and participated in the evaluation
How do you refine an intervention based on research?
___Determine whether your process – the planning, set-up and implementation of the program – went as planned
___Determine whether your program had the desired impact on the behaviors and risk and protective factors you targeted
___If there was no impact, or only a partial impact (or a negative impact), that could affect the program’s outcomes
___Determine whether your program achieved its desired outcomes
___If the program achieved its desired outcomes, consider how you can expand and strengthen the areas that worked well, and make the program more efficient and effective
___If the program failed to achieve the desired outcomes, work backwards – “but why” – to find where the problems lie
___If the program failed to have the intended impact on the targeted behaviors and risk and protective factors, that could explain the fact that you didn’t meet your outcome goals
___If the program had the intended impact on the targeted behaviors and factors, but failed to achieve the desired outcomes, you may have targeted the wrong behaviors or factors
___If some or all of the process was different from what was planned, that might affect the program’s impact on the targeted factors
___If the planning process or reasoning was faulty, it could result in targeting the wrong factors, or in using ineffective methods that target the right factors
___Once you’ve determined where and how to make adjustments and done it, repeat the evaluation and refinement cycle for the life of the intervention