Program Evaluation Design

Safe Space Initiative

Background

While the concept of 'Safe Space' has changed and evolved over time, it was originally defined as; "Extracurricular groups that are intended to be havens for historically marginalized students.” Most often Safe Space is associated with LGBTQ+ individuals, but has been somewhat expanded to "A space with zero tolerance for hate speech, violence or harassment." The intent is to provide a space where anyone can speak freely, seek advice, or gain support in an environment that it understanding and inclusive. It is a program that has been initiated is in multiple universities and colleges across Canada and the United States.

Program & Focus

Rules of Safe Space

Everyone is welcome
No subject is of limits
Be respectful
Discussions are confidential and private unless it threatens the student or students well being

As a growing international boarding school, a need had been identified for providing students of different cultures, the platform to ask questions, seek advice, or just talk about topics that are not typically addressed in the day to day classroom activities.

The Safe Space initiative offers the ability to provide a space outside of class, that would be able to address some of the needs of students, who are feeling isolated from families and support systems.

Goals

1. To provide an inclusive and welcoming environment to all students.

2. To provide a judgment free space for students.

3. Create an awareness for staff and students to allow for a more inclusive and supportive school culture.

4. Promote a culture of acceptance and understanding where students are free to express themselves.

5. Provide accesses to outside resources and additional help.

Staff Involved

Currently, we have 3 staff volunteering regularly with the program, the ones that have consistently coming to sit and interact with the students.

2 Teachers
1 Residential Advisor

All three have some training through Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute (CTRI) in awareness in Mental Health in Youth, as well as Anxiety and Depression.

A social worker

The school works with a social worker who comes into to speak with students who have need of support on a more professional level. If a bigger issue is identified in Safe Space, the Social Worker would then be notified.

Dean of Students
Assistant Head of School
Head of School

The administration that deals directly with student welfare are supportive of the program. They are only directly involved when a more severe situation is identified and the safety and well being of a student or students come into questions.

Demographics & Stakeholders

Demographics

Maximum capacity of 110, currently 80 students; China, Japan, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Russia, Austria, Eritrea, and Canada.
Currently 70+ staff; Administration, Support Staff, Teachers, Residential Advisors, and Night Supervisors.

Stakeholders

Teachers: Responsible for student welfare throughout the week day.
RA Staff: Responsible for student welfare in the evenings and weekends
Administration: Support staff to student welfare, as well as liaison between school and parents.
School Parent Company: Responsible to students, staff, and parents, who wish to have a successful and sustainable school environment that meet the needs of all parties.

Purpose

The purpose of the evaluation is to see if we are working towards our goals, and are having some success with the program. We would also like to know how to improve or change the program to reach more of the student body and get them engaged with the program.

Questions

Do all student understand what Safe Space is?
Do students feel like the program is helpful to them?
How can we improve on the program?

Should the program continue?
Is the program offering a valuable and meaningful contribution to the school?

Program Theory

SWOT

SWOT Analysis Chart of Safe Space.pdf

An analysis of the strengthens, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the program in order to create an effective program theory.

Program Theory

Using the logframe for the theory of change and action.

Logic Model Safe Space.edited.pdf

Evaluation Approach

Data Collection

Sampling Strategies

Simple Random: A completely random sampling
Critical Case: Document any cases that arise that may in future, impact a similar case.
Typical Case: Develop a baseline normal, what are we seeing everyday.
Volunteer: Just asking participating students to volunteer.

Data Collection Strategies

Survey
Interview
Observational notes

Survey

The survey is straightforward and collects basic information from a large sampling to quickly ascertain if knowledge of the program has been spread to the student body. Google Forms quickly and effectively allows the survey to be distributed to the entire student body where they can return their answers in an anonymous way. It also has the ability to ask quantitative and qualitative questions. A potential issue with the survey is that students may simply choose not to fill in the survey despite the ease of the program.

Safe Space Interview Questions

Interview

A one-on-one interview with regular participants to the program is a good way to get more detailed information about the program and meaningfulness as it applies to the students directly and provides a gauge on how things are currently going.

Observational Notes

Would also like to be able to step back from the Safe Space sessions, would also like to have the other facilitators take notes on the interactions with the participants. Photo and video documentation for the program would be ideal, making sure the students remain anonymous in both mediums. Additionally, the visuals would not be used until they had left the school.

Observational Notes

Sample Responses

Sample Interview Student Replies

In a sampling, I interviewed two students who have been participating in the program since it began in the Fall. I was looking for honest feedback and transcribed exactly as they answered. This method of collection worked well as we were able to integrate it right into part of the meeting that night.

Google Form is that the results can easily be exported conveniently to a Excel file that organizes all the responses and creates visual carts for quantitative data.

Safe Space Survey Results.csv

Commitment to Standards of Practice

The program evaluation will adhere to the Evaluation Standards, by conducting a fair and impartial evaluation in a timely manner.

All parties involved will be informed, and consent gained prior to participating in the evaluation adhering to the Unity Standards.
The evaluation will be done with no disruption, and no cost to the school adhering to the Feasibility Standards.
All subjects of the evaluation will be treated with dignity and respect, all findings disclosed, and all conflicts of interest will be addressed and disclosed up front; adhering to the Propriety Standards.
Information will be valid, reliable, and impartially reported in adherence to the Accuracy Standards, additionally, information will be thoroughly documented, analyzed, and justifiable.

Data Analysis

In order to analyze the qualitative data, as much of it is textual through observational notes, and interviews; a content analysis would be best. In order to distill down the main ideas, and texts that pertain to and are relevant the evaluation questions.

For the quantitative data, a summary statistics in order to see just how many students are aware of the program, and have attended, then we can see specifically how many know or the program, where and when if they needs it, and or have attended at some point.

Evaluation Reporting

Intent

The intent of the evaluation reporting is to not only see where the program can be improved, but also to demonstrate to the stakeholders that it is a valuable program to the school, and should be continued to be supported.

Impact

In order to make sure the evaluation has an impact on the program currently, and continues to do so, the evaluation itself will be ongoing. Each year there is a school-wide debrief at the end of school year, the program will no doubt be scrutinized, and an outcome evaluation will need to be done. By doing so we will have information and data to compare from year to year to see if the program is growing and developing. As the program is still small and growing, it will be easy to implement the current process and impact evaluation results.

Presentation

Would like to present the information to be conveyed in an appealing and visual manner. Often more visual mediums are more successful to a broader audience, therefore using the following formats;

PowerPoint

Safe Space Report

The PowerPoint format lends itself to showcasing the results of the survey.

Video

Video format has the most impact for the interview and observational notes. Eventually adding audio and photos as well to give more of an impact.

Resources & Sources

“Safe-Space.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe-space.

Hearn, Simon. Define What Is To Be Evaluated, Betterevaluation.org, 2013.

“Report and Support Use.” Report and Support Use | Better Evaluation, www.betterevaluation.org/plan/reportandsupportuse.

“Framework Overview.” Framework Overview | Better Evaluation, www.betterevaluation.org/plan.

“Describe.” Describe | Better Evaluation, www.betterevaluation.org/plan/describe.

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, James R. Sanders, Chair (ed.): The Program evaluation Standards, 2nd edition. Sage Publication, Thousand Oaks, USA, p.23-24; 63; 81-82,125-126

“Crisis and Trauma Resoure Institute - Canada CTRI.” CTRI Canada, ca.ctrinstitute.com/.

Google Sites

Report abuse