Sustaining Your Work

Assess and reflect on your work

Assessment

• Nonprofit FAQ: Evaluation

  This section responds to some frequently asked questions about assessment and evaluation.

• Evaluating Community Projects: A Practical Guide

  Evaluation can help you measure the success of your community work, and show you how to re-focus energy and resources to make your work more effective. As part of its neighborhood program, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has developed this resource which offers a step-by-step approach to evaluating your community efforts.

• Evaluating Programs and Initiatives

  This section of The Community Tool Box is focused on developing a plan for evaluation, methods for evaluation, and using evaluation to understand and improve your initiative or group. Although some of the tools for evaluation are centered on health initiatives, other tools can be applied to any community group or initiative.

• Evaluating Your Efforts

  This resource, from The Benton Foundation, focuses on the evaluation of outreach efforts. It reviews the reasons why evaluation is important for your group, outlines different types of evaluative methods, and discusses the possibility of hiring an outside evaluator.

Reflection

• Reflection Starters: Basic Discussions

  Written and complied by Julie Reed and Christopher Koliba, Facilitating Reflection: A Manual for Leaders and Educators is a manual for leaders and educators who want to provide reflection opportunities for students and community partners. It includes exercises for group reflection.

• Reflection Toolkit

  This resource from The Corporation for National and Community Service offers some useful suggestions for conducting a reflection session and offers advice on creative reflection exercises.