Scenario Two

Ruth had never written a grant application. With guidance from the staff, however, she volunteered to help in the process. The grant required statements of the organization's mission, as well as statements of the goals of the gardening program, the activities involved, staff involvement, the cost of the program for the first and succeeding year, and the evaluation plan that would be put into place. Ruth was not alone in having little experience in writing grants. The Proposal Development Committee felt that they too would not be able to answer all the questions posed by the grant application. They fully expected to have to call the Beed Foundation themselves for further explanations on a number of points. One thing that everyone knew, however, was that the application asked how they planned to evaluate the program. Only a few staff had ever been involved in a full-fledged evaluation. Also, not all the staff members were familiar with foundation grants, so they too would learn some new skills. At their first meeting, they wondered aloud how they might "prove" that the gardening program had been a worthwhile undertaking for the residentsas well as being worth the $2,000 it would cost to get started. Neither Ruth nor the committee knew the term "learning moment," but it most certainly applied to them at this time (Gray, 1998). Certainly, both the staff and their volunteer, Ruth, saw potential for the organization to learn through evaluating the gardening program. Although they were not yet in a position to delineate the learning that would take place, they were beginning to talk about why they would do the evaluation. Was it simply because the Beed Foundation mandated it? Who else at the retirement facilitywhether staff, management, or clientsmight be interested in the results? What would be the benefits and limitations of evaluation? Was this organization, though seemingly cohesive and working in a climate of trust, risking anything by examining failures as well as successes (Gray, 1998)? Finally, Ruth wondered to what extent the evaluation would change her program.

After reading chapter 2, reflect on Scenario 2 and describe some of the outcomes of the evaluations that your might anticipate?