Family Strengthening Program
3
Evaluation Report Summary– Family Strengthening Program
Citation:
Cojocaru, S., Cojocaru, D., & Bunea, O. (2010). Family strengthening program evaluation report. Social Research Reports, 14.
Program Description:
The evaluated program is running in SOS Children’s village Bucharest, two districts of Sibu and Bacau. The program team is constantly involved with different authorities and bodies to make sure that program was successful. The initiative was designed to strengthen families. It started back in 1999 on a small range but gradually grew. From 1999 to 2016 the program has been running for 17 years now. A number of volunteers are now working and the number of participants in this program is increasing each year. Project coordinator, project staff and social workers all work strictly in order to make this program to succeed and be beneficial for the families going through difficult situations. From 2004 to 2007, more than 400 children benefited from the program, some of them were still active cases at that time. The program obviously had some budgets associated as well, which included working expense, personal cost, expenses for travelling, medical expense and administration cost. This cost increased with each year because of inflation and price fluctuations.
Evaluation Purpose:
The purpose of the evaluation is to find out the effect of family strengthening program that is run by SOS. Evaluation purpose will cover the main interventions and practices, which affect the children, their families, and communities. The involvements and the way they met the target groups’ needs, the way it changed in order to achieve the objectives, different analysis including cost analysis, the ability of the program to withstand and sustain against different factors all of these along with some other areas which we will look into in this report. Along with these, the evaluation will cover the importance of such interventions on all the program participants. Once we find out the results after evaluation, those results will be used to help programs to be successful in the future. These are the main objectives and purpose of evaluation so that we can find out the above factors and its influences on the program.
Evaluation Design:
Evaluation is carried out in two different approaches and methods, which are qualitative and quantitative methods. Both of these were based upon an effective data collection process. Evaluation team started gathering data but before that they analyzed the policies and manual so the process can be efficient. Data gathered was going through the files in the database, these included information related to names, age, marital status, income, the number of children in the household etc. Along with these, there was a lot of information, which helped team collect the data efficiently. After data collection families were identified, which were asked for focus group sessions along with interview sessions. These provided a clear picture of the situation of open and close cases and how the thinking works of those families. Along with families, workers and staff who participated in the program were also interviewed to find out their perception as well. Once all the information was gathered, it was analyzed in qualitative and quantitative form. Data gathered research was based on the following steps which were documentation, focus group sessions individual interview sessions. Participants in the focus group were selected randomly based on their case type active or closed. For interview 4 active cases and 5 closed cases were selected. There were a constant support and involvement from the program team, which helped the research team in every possible way to make sure that the research generates the best outcome.
The questionnaire consists of the following:
1. What impact did the program have on the lives of the participating children in the target group, on their families, as well as on the community?
2. How relevant, efficacious, efficient, sustainable and participative the program’s interventions are?
3. What lessons can be learnt from the program that can be used for the further development of the program?
The data collection strategy included an 8-step process, which is given above in a summarized way.
Evaluation Findings:
After the research, the following were the main findings from it, the attitude in attitude from adults regarding children and their wellbeing. They also now realized the importance of different needs, which a child has, how a family relation should be and how it can affect a child and his thinking. Children learn the most from their homes, they are continuously schooling and learning new things each day. The need to improve living conditions overall, improvement of health and safety conditions for children, a parent should always appreciate when a child does something worth appreciation and applauding because this gives children motivation and boost to do better things and feel appreciated. A family should be self-reliant and not depend on others to satisfy children and their wants. Each household should encourage the practice of savings for future and investments, which are to be made on child’s future betterment. Evaluation findings also included that the number of parents abandoning children is decreasing which is a good sign, families participating in initiative and program are satisfied and most of them also have some plans for the future and hopes to reach them by saving and investments.
Critiques:
The evaluation theory was found beneficial and it properly showed the results of attitude. From the results, adults can analyze and evaluate their attitudes to their well beings and can improve their attitude to their well beings which would increase well being in children and their living conditions. The program and initiative’s success lie in the dedication and devotion from the volunteer, different bodies involved in making the program successful, interactive and enjoyable for the families, counselors who made sure parents and families are involved properly in this initiative. The most important members in the program were the families themselves who in the end realized the importance of children and how they should take care of them. Children’s improvement in the standard of living and their emotional connection with families can only be improved when their parents interact with them more and provide them with an environment which encourages safety, health, good food and education. Children also need to get appreciated and want their families to spend quality time. If a family does the above successfully, they will surely keep the child happy as well. For planning future of a family and their child, parents should start saving very early so that they can invest on their children later on in their life when an investment has to be done on them. All the parents love their children but sometimes they do need counseling sessions to realize it and feel the importance, which they might have neglected due to the problems they are facing in their life. Parents should always try to give their child the best of everything but for this to happen, they need to make sure that savings are done in advance so the lifestyle, which they want to give to their children is achievable and in their reach.
