In what ways did program modifications impact leaders’ experiences in our training program?
Context
Catalyst Experience (CE) is a nine-month experiential learning lab designed for current and emerging leaders in the non-profit, business, and church communities who share a passion for the well-being and prosperity of residents living in the Grand Rapids, MI region. Building from the evaluation work we did in Year 1, we again sought to examine program impact but in light of changes CE leadership had made to some of the program elements. Much like in Year 1, the 14 leaders who were selected for the program experienced day-long workshops, multi-day “vision trips” to other locations to learn about other city-wide transformational programs, small group discussions, and personal reflection opportunities.
Research
Due to the fact that we had learned how program impacts took a while to become evident, in this Year 2 evaluation, we determined that it would be more worthwhile to speak to all program participants at the very end of the experience. As before, we analyzed overtime quantitative changes to participants’ Incarnational Framework Inventory data – a tool that was linked directly to many of the concepts participants discussed over the course of the 9 month period. We also gathered qualitative remarks from the hour-long, semi-structured interviews we conducted with all program participants; these were extremely useful in offering specific feedback to program developers. However, due to the heightened need to demonstrate strong program effectiveness to funders, we gathered many more stories and specific examples that illustrated the broad and meaningful impact of the experience.
Deliverable
We created a number of deliverables to share with various constituents: (1) a one pager and slide deck overview to share with program participants; (2) a written report highlighting effective program elements and offering specific feedback to CE leadership; (3) a colorful poster-like visual that illustrated the general impacts and specific manifestations of the program in participant’s personal and professional lives to share with all interested parties.