• Readiness of the community to begin to accept change;
• Ability of your coalition to work with the community;
• Problems in your community that can be changed;
• Strategies that will impact the problem, and
• Progress in getting to the outcomes your coalition identifies.

Measuring each of these areas is how coalitions evaluate where they are and determine where they need to be working in order to get to the outcomes they've identified for their communities. Measuring the same information over a period of time (for example every year) will provide the data necessary to do an evaluation.

Determining what to measure is the key. To make those decisions, coalitions need to begin with a logic model that clearly outlines the problems/consequences you are trying to change; the reasons why the problems exist; the causes behind those reasons and the strategies that will impact the causes.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America provides a primer for evaluation. Here are samples from their primer for a logic model and its evaluation plan. You can download the entire primer at: http://www.coalitioninstitute.org/Evaluation-Research/EvaluationPrimer-2005.pdf

SAMPLE Logic Model

• Sample Logic Model
• Logic Model Template

SAMPLE Evaluation Plan

• Sample Evaluation Plan
• Evaluation Plan Template