Cross Border Connections Project

A Project supported by Peace III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Donegal

County Council

How we monitored and evaluated Phase I

Cross Border Connections

• PEACE III Phase 1 funded project (Oct ‘09- Oct ‘10) and then extended to 31st March 2011

• Cross Border Project based in Lifford but with a remit of all of Donegal & Border areas

• Aimed at young people aged 5-25 & the adult volunteers who support them

• The Project focused on delivering programmes and activities which explored issues around prejudice, sectarianism, diversity and racism

Project Aims

• The overall aim of the project was to build better cross community and cross border relationships among young people and adults in Donegal, Tyrone, Derry & Fermanagh by developing meaningful links with young people and youth organisations who traditionally had not engaged in meaningful cross border activities due to fear and distrust.

Our Focus:• We had 4 core objectives which needed to be

achieved• Each of these 4 objectives were very clear – each

one outlined what activities had to be delivered to ensure that the project was successful.

• The challenge now was to PROVE that a) we worked with the targeted number of participants and b) that these participants took part in the activities we had secured the funding to deliver

Methodology

• We used a combination of QUANTITATIVE and QUALTITATIVE analysis to demonstrate that:

1.We worked with the number of people we said we would – QUANTITY

2.That we achieved what we said we would achieve by delivering programmes that demonstrated that they made a difference - QUALITY

Target/programme tracker used

Additional EvidenceWe also held detailed project files for every group which included:•Programme Plan outlining Aims, Objectives and Outcomes of the programme and detailed session plans•Consent forms•Sign in sheets – to prove that the young people actually attended•Photographs – added evidence•End of session journals from youth workers•Invoices which detailed meals, trips etc.•End of session evaluations

Objective 1.1 - OutputsProposed Impact Young People will have worked on

various issue based programmes using a variety of medium to explore issues around Prejudice, Diversity Sectarianism, Racism, Ethnicity

Targeted No. Of Young People engaged with Project

240 Young People

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project

559 Young People

% Difference +223%

Objective 1.2 - OutputsProposed Impact Young People will have worked on

shared Project to Strengthen & promote lasting relationships North & South

Targeted No. Of Young People engaged with Project

60 Young People

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project

87 Young People

% Difference +145%

Objective 2.1 - OutputsProposed Impact Young People will have engaged on a

Summer Programme

Targeted No. Of Young People engaged with Project

160 Young People

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project

240 Young People

% Difference +150%

Objective 2.2 - OutputsProposed Impact That Young People will have engaged on

accredited training Programmes

Targeted No. Of Young People engaged with Project

40 Young People

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project & awarded their accreditation

43 Young People

% Difference +108%

Objective 2.3 - OutputsProposed Impact That Young People & Adults will have

completed accredited training Programmes in Conflict Resolution

Targeted No. Of Young People & Adults engaged with Project

64 Young People & Adults

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project

60 Young People & Adults completed (68 had begun training but not all finished)

% Difference 94%

Objective 2.4 - OutputsProposed Impact That Young People & Adults will have

completed Community Leadership Training

Targeted No. Of Young People & Adults engaged with Project

10 Young People & Adults

Actual No. of Young People engaged with Project

10 Young People & Adults

% Difference 100%

Objective 3.2 - OutputsProposed Impact Delivery of Non – accredited Training

Programmes to Adults across Donegal

Targeted No. Of Adults completed training

40 Adults

Actual No. of Adults completed training 61 Adults

% Difference +149%

Additionally

• Adults undertook and completed OCN Level II in Youth Leadership (with non accredited Diversity Workshops)

Location Details No. Of Adults

Derry OCN Level II Youth Leadership 8

Castlefinn OCN Level II Youth Leadership 8

Fanad OCN Level II Youth Leadership 6

So our Targets were met….But we also needed to monitor our

participants!• We needed to demonstrate that we targeted

the Protestant community when we engaged our participants – this was a requirement of our funding. The average Protestant participation level in Donegal was 2% - according to our records we achieved 18%*. *NISRA estimated 15-17% based on sampling

• How do we know this?

****DATA Collection****

• We created a DATABASE at the beginning of the programme which held the following information on every young person who was registered on our programme (Consent forms)

• Name, Age, Gender, Area, Programme participation, Perceived Religion (NISRA monitoring forms were also used)

DATA Collection

• This allowed us to access and correlate information for funders and reports on an on-going basis as well as feeding into the final programme evaluation report

Qualitative Data

• We used a combination of baseline studies (Aids for peace) to demonstrate Attitudal change, end of session evaluations using flip charts to be used for quotation purposes for the final report and end of programme evaluations using detailed surveys to demonstrate that the programme aims had been met.

Aids for peace sample

Aids for Peace analysis sample

Flip chart evaluations sample

• “The most useful thing was about learning more about myself and my friends” Female 12 from Ballintra and Laghey Group

• “It was fun and no one judged you no matter what you said” Catherine from Malin

• “I am now more confident discussing different issues “Female 16 from TY Ballyshannon

• “I think gay people should have a right to live a normal life” Biddy from Youthreach Lifford

This is useful for demonstrating ‘Soft Outcomes’

End of Programme survey sample

End of programme survey analysis

What did we do with this information?

• The learning we received from evaluating our programme was Crucial

• It allowed us to make a case for decreasing our targets in Phase II as we had demonstrated more impact on longer term programmes

• It was used in our final evaluation• It gave us the opportunity to look at our programmes

to see what was working well and what was not so that we could change it

What did we do with this information? Cont….

• The database was a huge time saver – we could access information quickly and easily

• The target tracker allowed us to easily see what we needed to do next and with how many people

• Perhaps most importantly – all this tracking, monitoring and evaluating gave us FOCUS - we all knew what needed to be done, where and why - everything we did was done because it was specifically meeting an outcome

Thank you

Any Questions??

A Project supported by Peace III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Donegal

County Council