What is a Theory of Change?
A theory of change diagram that explains how you’re undertaking has an effect on younger humans. It is a sensible version that permits you to articulate HOW you may gain your purpose, and what assumptions you are making.
A Theory of Change ought to efficiently describe and provide an explanation for the effect of the undertaking from a beneficiary’s factor of view. Subsequent iterations can also additionally encompass scale and operational details.
Why are Theories of Change beneficial?
Theories of Change are beneficial for:
- Internal programmed development: the procedure of growing a Theory of Change allows you to refine and decorate the effectiveness of your undertaking.
- External communication: a Theory of Change diagram may be a beneficial device for speaking what your programmed does and the way it has an effect in a clean and convincing way.
- Evaluation making plans: its miles a primary step in designing a powerful assessment, because it permits you to discover which consequences are the key for your version’s achievement and may imply which of them ought to be the point of interest of your assessment efforts.
Project Oracle believes that a Theory of Change, which offers a clean, concise and convincing explanation of what you’re undertaking does, what effect you purpose to have and the way you trust you may gain it, is a crucial basis of any undertaking, and a prerequisite for powerful assessment. For this reason, generating a Theory of Change is a compulsory requirement for reaching Standard 1 of Project Oracle’s Standards of Evidence.
How do I create a Theory of Change?
There are 5 steps in growing a Theory of Change in your undertaking:
- You have to identify your aims
- You have to identify your outcomes
- You have to identify your activities.
- You have to show your causal links.
- You have to examine your assumptions.
This report will describe every of those 5 factors in turn, framing them with examples from a fictional programmed geared toward lowering young people re-offending. The complete Theory of Change diagram for this undertaking may be observed on web page 1.
Theory of Change and Evaluation Planning
Your Theory of Change is a crucial step earlier than making plans your assessment. However, after you begin to plan your assessment, sensible issues along with to be had facts and gear can also additionally imply the consequences on your Theory of Change aren’t precisely what you’re going to be measuring on your assessment. Remember to revisit your Theory of Change as soon as you’ve got deliberate your assessment to make sure that there’s consistency among those documents!