AmeriCorps St. Louis
Evaluation Planning and Implementation
Project Date
Mar 2021 – Jan 2023
Type of Evaluation
Outcome, Process
Setting
Community-based
Overview
AmeriCorps St. Louis aims to protect people and places through service to the local, state, and national community in emergency response and environmental stewardship. Organizational Corps Members serve as an Emergency Response Team, able to deploy to disasters nationally, but focus on Environmental Stewardship projects when not deployed on a disaster. AmeriCorps St. Louis is a part of a large network of national service through the Corporation for National and Community Service.
The Evaluation Center partnered with AmeriCorps St. Louis to refine its data collection instruments and better understand the impact of its services.
Project Description
Background
The Evaluation Center conducted a process and outcome evaluation for both the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) priority focus area of Disaster Response and the secondary focus of Environmental Stewardship. The purpose of this evaluation was to inform program staff, the Missouri Community Service Commission, and the CNCS on the effectiveness of the implementation of services. Specifically, the team evaluated the theory of change, which states AmeriCorps St. Louis services:
1) caused disaster response partners to experience positive change in both knowledge/skill and service delivery of disaster response and recovery operations; and
2) assisted environmental stewardship partners to meet their land management targets/goals.
Evaluation Center Activities
- Worked closely with the AmeriCorps team to finalize the list of evaluation questions.
- Developed data collection instruments and approaches.
- Revised the process for documenting and tracking progress for individual AmeriCorps Members to be used for Year 28 and beyond.
- Established interview guides for interviews with three groups:
1) AmeriCorps members,
2) agency representatives from Disaster Response Sites, and
3) representatives from Environmental Stewardship Sites. - Created data collection protocols to be used in future years.
Our Products
- Pre- and post-surveys for AmeriCorps Members
- AmeriCorps Member goal tracking process
- Key informant interview guides
- Data collection protocols
Contact Person
