Project planning and evaluation

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Project lifecycle
• Where are you in the project lifecycle?
• Phase 1 - Needs assessment
• Phase 2 - Project planning
• Phase 3 - Implementation
• How to develop your project plan
• Evaluation planning
• How to develop your evaluation plan
• Terminology
• Appendix 1 - Sample project plan
• Appendix 2 - Sample evaluation plan

Introduction

This guidance document aims to help you build a viable project plan for a crime prevention project.

Projects need to demonstrate clear goals, objectives and viability - with measurable outcomes and indicators. This document provides you with the preliminary planning framework to help you build such a project.

There are essentially three phases in a project lifecycle:

• Phase 1 - Needs assessment
• Phase 2 - Project planning
• Phase 3 - Implementation

While not a separate phase, evaluation (which includes ongoing, mid-term, and final evaluation) is an essential part of the cycle, occurs throughout the life of the project, and informs all phases.

Project lifecycle

Where are you in the project life cycle?

You will first need to determine the phase for which you will be seeking funds.

Phase 1: Needs assessment

Your group knows there are some crime problems/issues in the community, but you do not know how big the problems are, whom they affect or what should be done about them. This is the very beginning of the project lifecycle, Needs Assessment, and it could be the focus of a project.

Phase 2: Project planning

Your community has already identified the specific crime or victimization problem/needs in your community and now wants to plan specific crime prevention activities to address those issues. This is the second phase of the project lifecycle, Project planning, and it could be the focus of a project.

Phase 3: Implementation

Your group knows the problems/issues in your community, you have consulted the community and developed a project plan with specific crime prevention activities to address those problems/issues and you are ready to start the project. This is the third phase of the project lifecycle, Implementation, and it could be the focus of a project.

Phase 1 - Needs assessment

This part of the project lifecycle focuses on the community and identifies the specific crime-prevention issue, problem or need to be addressed. It aims to also identify the risk factors that help to explain why a problem exists and the protective factors that can contribute to the solution. (for definitions and examples, see the Risk and Protective Factors fact sheet, which can be found in the Applicants Guide.)

The following are questions that you will need to answer in order to build a plan and submit a project proposal for this phase. By answering the questions you will give structure to your project objectives and determine the necessary inputs and activities.

On what specific crime or victimization issue in your community will this project focus?

• How was the issue first identified? (Who noticed it? When? Why?)
• How do you know there is a need to develop a project to respond to this issue?
• What are some of the risk factors and protective factors linked to this issue?
• Which of these risk factors do you think you can change?
• Upon which of these protective factors do you think you can build?
• Who can you contact or where can you go to get information, feedback or suggestions to develop project ideas or activities?

Refer to Appendix 1 - Sample project plan for an example that includes a needs assessment phase.

Phase 2 - Project planning

This part of the project lifecycle builds on what was discovered in the first phase. It focuses on what your crime prevention project is actually going to do and how it will address the problem/needs identified in your community. You will need to answer the following questions before assembling the comprehensive project plan:

• Who will be the focus of the project (e.g. youth, women)?
• What is the overall goal of your crime prevention project ? What do you want to change?
• What are possible solutions to address the identified issue, need or problem in your community?
• Which solutions seem most realistic and suitable?
• What are the objectives of your crime prevention project? What type of activities would achieve your objectives? What are the different steps you will have to take?
• What products, goods or services do you expect to produce or deliver as part of your project (e.g. training sessions, manuals, pamphlets, curriculum, CD/DVD, video, database, website, reports, etc.)?
• What will be the short-term results or outcomes of your activities? These will in turn contribute to achieving your objectives and overall goal(s).

After you identify what your crime prevention project could do, make a plan to put it into action:

• When will you do what? (Draw up a schedule of activities with start and end dates for each.)
• Where will the activities take place?
• Who will participate in each activity? How many? How will you get people to participate?
• What resources will you need (e.g. staff, volunteers, work space, photocopying, advertising, supplies, phone, computer equipment, transportation, etc.)? (These resources will need to be listed in your budget; see the Budget guidance document which can be found in the Applicants Guide.)
• How will you get these resources (e.g. donations of products or services, financial support)?
• How will you get the community (and in particular, members of the priority group) involved in developing the project?
• How will you find partners? Who will be your partners? What will they contribute (e.g., money, materials, volunteers, training, etc.)?
• How will you share information about your project? With whom? How will the community learn about it?
• What is your evaluation plan? How will you monitor the progress of your project? How will you collect information? (See explanation under Evaluation later)
• What are some possible challenges you might face in doing your project? How will you deal with them?

Refer to Appendix 1 - Sample project plan for an example of the project planning phase of a project.

Phase 3 - Implementation

This is the phase of the project lifecycle where your crime prevention project comes to life.

How will you start the project?

1. Do you have a clear project work plan (see Phase 2 - Project planning)?
2. Is everything accounted for in your budget?
3. Do you have things in place to carry out, monitor and evaluate your project?

Refer to Appendix 1 - Sample project plan for an example of the Implementation phase of a project.

How to develop your project plan

Using your answers to the questions in the first part of this guidance document, you are now ready to build your project plan. The steps described demonstrate how you would go about developing your project plan.

1. Identify your project goaland who you intend to serve.
2. Identify the objectives that will lead to your goal.
3. Establish what the components of your project will be - that is, your broad strategies or service areas.
4. Describe the project inputs. Who and what will be required to operate your project?
5. For each component, describe your activities. Who will do what, and when?
6. Identify the outputs of your activities. How many participants do you expect? What (and sometimes, how many) tools, materials, or events will be produced?
7. Identify the outcomes linked to these activities. Remember that outcomes represent changes you hope to see result from your activities; they are not just the delivery of the activities themselves. You will want to mention the short-term and intermediate outcomes of your activities, making sure that these in turn link to your overall goal(s).

Refer to Appendix 1 - Sample project plan for an example and Terminology for definitions.

Evaluation planning

Evaluation planning comes down to two questions:

• What are the desired outcomes of your project?
• How will you measure them?

It is about building benchmarks and accountability into your plan, and using them to evaluate the plan as you go and after the project is finished. It gives your project a more strategic structure, provides evidence for your results and, importantly, contributes to the knowledge base about effective crime prevention.

Valid and reliable measurement tools

Valid measurement tools provide information that is a good reflection of what they are trying to measure. For example, if you wanted to measure the extent to which people were victims of a certain type of crime, you might want to look at more than just the number of reports to police since we know that many crimes are unreported.

Reliable instruments provide information that is likely to be consistent over time. It will not be affected by small changes in such things as the mood of people who respond to a survey or other circumstances unique to the day on which they complete the survey.

Quality and consistency

Quality evaluations also use consistent data collection procedures. For example, interview questions should be asked to all participants in the same way, and interviewees should be careful to record the same information at every session.

Where possible, collect data before and after a project. When data is collected only at the end of the project, you can't tell whether there was actually any change that occurred.

Good evaluations require resources - that is, time and money. Some evaluation-related activities may be carried out by project staff (for example, questionnaires can be administered by a project coordinator), research assistants (for example, students may compile and analyse data) or by people with special expertise (for example, an evaluation consultant might draft your questionnaire).

How to develop your evaluation plan

The steps described demonstrate how you would go about developing your evaluation plan.

1. Determine what information you will need to collect:
   • To see how your project is doing day to day (on-going monitoring)
   • To see if you are on track to achieve your intended results, if you are on time and if you are using resources as planned mid-way through your project (mid-term evaluation), so that you may make adjustments as needed
   • To see if the overall changes you were trying to achieve actually happened by the end of the project (final evaluation) and identify what you learned.
2. Determine your information sources/data collection methods. Sources of information may include project staff, other agencies, participants and their families, members of the public and the media. Information may be collected via a variety of methods, including:
   • Project records such as project activity log/daily journal: A book where you write down what happens each day. It is a useful source to document many of your indicators and will be helpful to you when writing the final project report.
   • Number and type of documents produced during the project (tools, flyers, advertisements, media coverage of your event/project, curriculum, etc)
   • Information collected about your participants related to the project (number attending sessions, information about who they are - age, gender, education, background, culture, etc)
   • Data from official sources (e.g. school records, census data, health data)
   • Questionnaires or surveys
   • Interviews or focus groups
   • Observation of project activities or locations in the community (e.g. track graffiti, condition of playground, activity in public spaces, etc)
     
3. Determine the frequency of the data collection and who will collect the information.
   
4. Finally, determine how you will analyse your data and report your findings to funders, your community and your project partners and stakeholders.

See Appendix 2 - Sample evaluation plan for insights on how to create an evaluation plan.

Terminology

Goal

A goal is the long-term change in specific problems or situations that you want to see in your community.

Objective

Project objectives stem from the project goal(s) but are more specific and concrete. Objectives are then achieved through activities.

Input

Inputs identify the resources that are needed to make your project operate. They include things such as staff, facilities and equipment.

Activity

Activities are what the project will do to achieve the desired objectives.

Output

Outputs are the products, goods or services you expect to produce or deliver as part of your project, or the number of people you expect to serve. They represent the concrete results of your activities.

Outcome

Outcomes are the impacts or changes your project activities are expected to make in your community. Outcomes usually occur in stages. Some happen soon after the activities occur (immediate outcomes). These outcomes in turn lead to others down the road (intermediate and long-term outcomes). The long-term outcomes are usually the same as the overall goal(s), while the immediate and intermediate outcomes are similar to objectives. Sometimes several activities work together to achieve one outcome and sometimes one activity has several outcomes.

Indicator

An indicator is information that is collected about a particular process or outcome that lets you know whether it has occurred or not. It tells you what is observable and measurable. Ultimately, all the indicators together tell you whether your project was able to achieve its main objectives and if it went along as planned.

Sources/Methods

Information sources and data collection methodsare simply about where, how and when you will collect the information to document your indicators. Sources of information may include project staff, other agencies, participants and their families, members of the public and the media. Information may be collected via a variety of methods.

Appendix 1 - Sample project plan

Objective(s):

• Objective 1: To reduce the incidence(s) of dating violence among high school youth.
• Objective 2: To increase public awareness and understanding of dating violence as a serious issue.

Appendix 2 - Sample evaluation plan

Objective(s):

• Objective 1: To reduce the incidence of dating violence among high school youth.
• Objective 2: To increase public awareness and understanding of dating violence as a serious issue.

Date modified:

2021-08-11