| Terms |
Explanation |
| Clients |
People who directly interact
with VWOs, being served by or using the services of a professional
person or the organisation. |
| Inputs |
Resources that a programme
uses to achieve programme objectives.
Examples are: the funds received, the number of staff and volunteers.
|
| Outputs |
The quantity of a product or
service produced by a programme.
Examples are: number of clients served, the number of counselling
or training sessions conducted.
Outputs that meet a specified service standard are of high quality
and amongst other things, timely, responsive and appropriate
to needs.
Examples are: proportion of meals that arrived at clients' home
warm and on time, number of trips that were done according to
the pre-arranged schedule. |
| Targets |
An objective or result towards
which efforts are directed; a goal to be achieved. |
| Milestones |
A critical point that clients
must reach to ensure that they are on course to achieving their
intended outcomes. |
| Outcomes |
Benefits for participants during or after
their involvement with a programme. Outcomes may relate to knowledge,
skills, attitudes, values, behaviour, conditions or status.
Examples are: greater knowledge of nutritional needs, improved
reading skills, more effective response to conflict. |
| Initial Outcomes |
First benefits or changes that
participants experience, and are the ones most closely related
to and influenced by the programme's output.
Initial outcomes are also changes in participants' knowledge,
attitudes or skills. |
| Intermediate
Outcomes |
Links a programme's initial
outcomes to the longer-term outcomes it desires for participants.
Changes in behaviour that result from participants' new knowledge,
attitudes or skills. |
| Longer Term
Outcomes |
The ultimate outcomes a programme
desires to achieve for its participants.
Represent meaningful changes for participants, often in their
condition or status. |
| Logic Models |
A description of how the programme
theoretically works to achieve benefits for participants.
It helps to identify the key programme components that must
be tracked to assess the programme's effectiveness. |
| Influencing
Factors |
Factors that affect the outcomes
of programmes that are not within the control of the programme.
Examples of these would include economic downturns affecting
the employment placement rate of clients, impact of other programmes
on the clients, and changes in clients' health status. |
| Individual
Client Plan (ICP) |
Charts the main goals of the programme
for the client. It is a written document done after the agency
staff does an assessment of what the client can achieve.
The ICP should include the main components of the programme's
core features. As far as possible, the goals should be measurable,
time limited and realistic. Depending on the length of programme,
long-term goals and short-term goals should be set with regular
review periods to assess the extent to which goals have been
met.
An ICP can be developed for any programme with specific goals
set for individual clients depending on the specific needs of
the clients. |
| Verification |
Establishing that something
represented to happen does in fact take place. |
