Hold Team Meetings . Monitor and Evaluate Your Efforts . Sustain Your SART . Know Your Team . Critical Issues
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Types of Evaluation
Impact Evaluation
Impact evaluations assess long-term intended and unintended outcomes. The basic question that impact evaluations seek to answer is, "What actual results did the outcome produce?"13 For example, your objective may be to expand and enhance community partnerships to support victims, regardless of which agency or organization they initially contact. The outcome from expanded partnerships may be that victims feel more supported and have more of their needs met. The impact of that outcome could mean that victims may be more willing to work with criminal justice providers over an extended time.
You may find yourself left with some unintended outcomes. For example, if you've increased the number of cases investigated, you may now see a backlog in the processing of medical forensic examination kits. At first glance, the outcome is positive (more investigations and prosecution of cases), but that impact can have a ripple effect on limited resources. A negative impact (e.g., limited resources), though, can prove invaluable if you use the results to revise policies or inform policymakers and funders about evolving needs.
Consider asking team members to rate the following statements regarding the SART's impact:
