Program Planning and Evaluation Paper
HSM/270

Program Planning and Evaluation Paper

A program is, “an activity or outcome-driven target population service, which is most often change-oriented and time limited,” (University of Phoenix, 2007). A program as it pertains to the human service field is referred to as a ‘service’. In order for a program, or service, to be successful it takes an abundant amount of planning; coming up with strategies and goals, and evaluations of those in the future. While these are two separate things, if built properly, should coincide with each other and become more alike than different. This is especially true when dealing with a program such as the Madison Children’s Hospital, a service that will help many children and their families if organized and evaluated properly. Program planning and program evaluation are two separate entities that rely on each other to make a service program grow and be successful. Program planning is a developmental process in which goals are made in order to fix problems or better adhere to the needs of the service community. The plan takes into consideration what will happen in the future as well as what has happened thus far. It is put together in a design format and then will be assessed in the program evaluation at a later time. It needs to do a few specific things: it needs to identify the problem and provide a clear understanding, state who it is effecting and how severely, offer a proper and realistic way to step in and change the problem, then certain factors need to be pinpointed that will be looked at and evaluated later to measure whether the new plan is successful or if it needs to be modified with another plan. The program evaluation is often presented in the format of a program outcome model which; “includes inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes,”