This section offers a step-by-step guide on how to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness and successes of social action efforts.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?
Luke 14:28
In any social action it is important to monitor and evaluate its effectiveness and successes:
Monitoring and evaluating systems needs to be established and should take place:
There are three steps that you should monitor and evaluate:
Activity – e.g. emailing your MP/ Senedd Member; running an event etc.
Outcome – e.g. changes in legislation.
Impact – e.g. better life for families, communities etc.
It does not have to be complicated. Here are some basic principles that you can use to ensure your issue stays on target and is effective in creating the change you hope for:
If you have defined a clear vision of what you want to achieve at the start of your social action, this will help you to monitor and evaluate whether you are achieving it. Your primary focus should be on your ultimate aim but you should also monitor how effective your methods are. Evaluate the usefulness of your tools – writing to an MP/ Senedd Member, social media, hosting an event in your church, speaking on radio etc.
Decide on some milestones
How many weeks or months do you wish to spend on your issue?
Decide on some indicators of success
Think in terms of short and long term goals. Tips: Be sure of the reasons for your social action. Do not be too ambitious but do not limit your vision.
If no one is signing your petition, think about another way to gain support, such as contacting local media or holding an event. Do stay on track with your message – if it seems that your goals are changing what might this suggest about your aims?
It is important to ensure that you have adequate resources to see the social action though. Resources include: time, people, commitment, materials, information, and for an event – a venue and refreshments.
Once your goals have been reached, assess the effectiveness of the methods that you used to get your message across.
When the social justice change that you have campaigned for has been agreed to, even in part, it is important to monitor its implementation. This can often be done through monitoring the media. It is also important to share the outcome and the successes of your social action with those who have supported it. You might be interested in hearing about what others thought of your social action. Tips: Assess whether there were any surprises or unintended outcomes to your social action.
Social justice change is just the beginning. Once you have carried out your assessment of the social action and whether it has achieved a result, it is good to see whether the changes you campaigned for achieve your ultimate objectives. This is a long term task and is rarely fulfilled quickly. Keep an eye out on the media as others will be monitoring and researching the impacts as well.
If the results you hoped for don’t come about as a result of the social action you campaigned for, think about whether you want to explore different solutions to the issue that concerned you at the start. Pray about whether you should commit yourself to further action or whether you should stop the action altogether for now.
Whatever you decide, thank God for the learning and for guiding you as you live out your faith in social action.
Sometimes, something we began a while ago is taken on by another person or group when the timing or environment is better, and so our efforts are not in vain. Tip: Use a case study – speak to someone who is affected by the issue you are campaigning on, before and after the policy or legislation changes. This could include you, someone in your family, friends or workplace. Although it won’t be 100% scientific, it will give you some anecdotal evidence about the success of the change and social action that brought it about.
Remember that any change, no matter how small, as a result of your campaigning is valuable in the short and long term.
Pope Francis can encourage us here when he says: ‘We must not think that these efforts are not going to change the world. They benefit society, often unbeknown to us, for they call forth a goodness which, albeit unseen, inevitably tends to spread. Furthermore, such actions can restore our sense of self-esteem; they can enable us to live more fully and to feel that life on earth is worthwhile.’
Laudato Si, sec. 212.
It is our job to respond to God’s call, to do what is right wherever we live in the world and never to be discouraged. We build the kingdom of God one brick at a time and we do it together. Pope Benedict XVI expresses the value of this service and of continued trust in God in Deus Caritas Est, sec. 35: ‘There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged… In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord…We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: “The love of Christ urges us on” 2 Corinthians 5:14’.
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Section 5: Volunteering and Further Resources >
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Bishop Richard Moth, Chair of the Department for Social Justice and Bishop of Arundel & Brighton provides the foreword for 'Turning Tables'.
