Evaluation
Are you seeking to:
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- Ensure your programs are doing what you want them to do?
- Improve your programs?
- Demonstrate your programs’ impact to leadership, funders, the individuals involved in your programs, and the broader community?
- Contribute to our understanding of mentorship in Alberta?
Evaluation is the tool you need! By evaluating your program, you can achieve all of the above and more. Whether you’re intimidated by the idea of evaluation or an evaluation expert, we have a resource for you! We’ve partnered with the Evaluation Capacity Network from the University of Alberta to offer you several free opportunities to build your capacity to conduct and use meaningful evaluations. Below you can read about how to access our Pre-Eval Webinar Series, ENGAGE website, and the E-Eval Series.
Pre-Eval Webinar Series
If you want to learn more about evaluation, are not sure where to start, or feel overwhelmed by the idea of evaluation, our Pre-Eval Webinar Series is made just for you!
You will learn about the processes behind evaluation and get practical application examples to help you put what you learned into practice. Guest speakers will talk to you about their experiences with building their evaluation capacity and conducting evaluations.
Topics will cover what program evaluation is, when to plan for it, how to build an organizational culture of evaluation, how to get started on your evaluation, evaluate your program within your means, how to gather data that is meaningful to you, ethical issues in evaluation and working with vulnerable populations, and analyzing and mobilizing your data. Full descriptions of each webinar are available on our resource website.
If you watch all 8 webinars, you will receive a certificate of completion.
To access these recordings, sign up for our ENGAGE website at engage.albertamentors.ca. Once registered for the website, enroll yourself in the Evaluation course to access the Pre-Eval series and so much more!
ENGAGE Website
Are you looking for specific resources or a place to talk to fellow mentoring organizations about evaluation? Register for ENGAGE, a website at engage.albertamentors.ca. Then, enroll yourself in the Evaluation course to access Pre-Eval recordings, discussion boards, and evaluation resources! The discussion boards are a place for you to connect with the facilitators of Pre-Eval and fellow mentoring organizations about evaluation topics and questions. Resources are also continually shared there to support you in growing your evaluation capacity.
To get a taste of the types of the resources available on ENGAGE, you can go to AMP’s Knowledge Hub and filter for Evaluation resources. If you enjoy those, register for ENGAGE for more!
E-Eval
E-Eval is a collaborative, flexible, and hands-on learning opportunity offered by the Evaluation Capacity Network and the Alberta Mentoring Partnership. E-Eval focuses on building the evaluation capacity of mentoring organizations. Over the course of approximately 6 months, mentoring organizations plan and conduct meaningful and useful evaluations of their programs. To support their ability to complete these evaluations, organizations join synchronous group learning sessions and have access to individual coaching sessions, a website with resources, and group coaching on more specific topics. The structure, content, and time commitment of the course is flexible based on organizational needs, but previous offerings have involved approximately 27 hours of group training. Networking and co-learning between organizations is also emphasized to provide valuable and contextual knowledge and resources specific to the mentoring sector. Learners will receive a certificate of completion.
E-Eval has been offered twice, running from November to April. To stay informed about future opportunities to join E-Eval and other similar initiatives, please sign up for the MentoringMinute newsletter at the bottom of this page!
“We acknowledge that we are on and support Mentoring for Youth in the traditional territories across Alberta of the many First Nations from Treaty 6,7,& 8, the Métis of the 8 Alberta Settlements, and Inuit people whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries.”