Domestic violence which has affected women and children for a long time in the American society has not addressed albeit these cases being reported to the authorities, communities and relevant institutions. In the quest for redress of domestic violence issue in the community, a program intervention was proposed to mitigate and avert further problems it caused to the victims. Nonetheless, there is a need to understand the extent to which the program intervention will be effective by assessing the requirements and evaluating the outcomes of the program. This is with the aim of deciphering every step’s efficiency in according support to domestic violence and ensuring that the players/stakeholders in the program are made aware of the impacts and progress the program is making (A Framework for Program evaluation, n.d.). This paper discusses a design program evaluation which is dubbed needs assessment and outcome evaluation aimed at evaluating the efficiency of the intervention recommended in mitigation and aversion of domestic violence and helping the victims.
Needs assessment and outcome evaluation is most useful for domestic violence intervention program since it helps in verification, documentation, and quantification of the requirements of the program, it presents the ability to improve the program and aids in provision of vital information that informs the decisions that are taken into account in the project (SAMHSA, 2012). The goals of the program evaluation are to clarify objectives, assess the aptness, and aid in advocating for efforts to other players in the program with the aim of solidifying support in financial investors. In addition, it is useful in addressing program cost, monitors the probity of the program, checks on the unintended effects, and helps in identification of new ideas and values of the proposed intervention program. The needs assessment and outcome evaluation program evaluation have 5 criteria that are useful for the intervention program which is significance, effectiveness, adeptness, impact, and sustainability of the program in its implementation (ADC, 2008).
This paper takes into consideration the post-test only evaluation design. This type of evaluation design is simple, concise, and straightforward (“Evaluation Designs,” n.d.). This will entail providing the intervention to a certain group of victims of domestic violence, or 2 groups where one will serve as a comparison and then they will be tested later on to check if the program intervention was efficient. The victims who will have participated and those who will not have participated and who possess similar characteristics are matched together and the differences between them are analyzed then the difference between them is accounted for which will aid in isolation of the impacts the intervention will have made. The advantage of this evaluation design is that it aids in instances when time or participants for the domestic violence are an issue or unavailable at the commencement of the program (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) et al., 2011). The other basis for the choice of this design includes; getting reliable information, show successes, make the results credible, and aid in developing a coherent plan.
In the one group post-test only design, it is possible to understand if the victims benefitted from the intervention program and they will be given a short survey which will present the feedbacks which will be a basis for improvements of the program. The two-group post-test only design, one group of victims will be identified and do not participate in the intervention program while the other one participates fully in the intervention program. At the end of the program, both groups are surveyed to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the program. The results would show a wide disparity between the two groups which, depending on the feedback they give, will determine whether the program was effective in assuaging their problems from domestic violence (“Introduction to Evaluation,” n.d.). This program, however, needs volunteers, community participants, and probably relevant authorities so that the evidence gained from this evaluation can be ascertained, and used in future endeavors aimed at mitigating and averting domestic abuse in the society at large.
The most relevant data collection plan is the paper-based formal questionnaires since the victims of domestic violence who might not want their identity of private information known will be protected, it is relatively cheap, and will achieve the most suitable and vast information which will facilitate the activities of the intervention program (Canali et al., 2008). In addition, the date which will be gained here is most accurate. Since the program is new, new data will be utilized by considering the development of an apt questionnaire oriented on the objectives of the evaluation having the desired number and type of participants. Questions for the questionnaire have to be precise and clear to communicate the message. Most of the questions have to be closed-ended questions have to be used in order to direct the respondents to provide the specific information that was needed. Some open questions will be constructed to get individual opinions from the respondents about child abuse and neglect. Demographics had to be included in the questions.
The measurement tools for this survey will be reports from the questionnaires which will have analyzed all the questions and responses to check for connection and validation of the data obtained. There are various concerns that the research design should address such as various threats for validity both external and internal and reliability (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) et al., 2011). The threats of internal validity include the history of the participants within the community, the maturity of the participants, the effects of the evaluation on the behavior and attitude of the participants, data loss and the way the participants are selected. The external validity threats include; interaction of data and program, a connection of selection procedures and the intervention program and research arrangements which might affect the behavior of the participants and external interferences. If the following design program evaluation; needs assessment and outcome evaluation is implemented, the effectiveness of the proposed intervention will have been identified.