Program Evaluation

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Program Evaluation Paper

Spiritual Inner Strength Through Self Awareness Retreat

Sarah Reynolds, Shimera Thomas, Jaymel Gilmore

Ball State University

EDAC 634

Group Members	Roles	Commented On
Sarah Reynolds	Group Leader. Provided program evaluation from personal source. Formatted and edited evaluation #2 and responded with comments. Contributed to introduction, group response, group reflection, and table. Reviewed overall document for edits.	Group 2
Shimera Thomas	Provided program evaluation from personal source. Formatted and edited evaluation #3 and responded with comments. Contributed to introduction, group response, group reflection, and table.	Group 4
Jaymel Gilmore	Set up video conferences for the group meetings. Posted the program evaluation to the blog for the group & created google document. Provided program evaluation from personal source. Formatted and edited evaluation #1 and responded with comments. Wrote the process. Contributed to introduction, group response, group reflection, and table.	Group 4

  

Introduction

The Spiritual Inner Strength Through Self Awareness Retreat is intended to bring together adults that are on their spiritual journey or looking to start their journey. Our retreat is targeted to parents. The intention of the retreat is to provide knowledge around spiritual learning; introduce the practices of yoga and meditation; and holistic living.

Program Evaluation #1

As conducted by Jane Gilmore (of no relation to Jaymel Gilmore), Paths to QUALITY Coaching Specialist. Jane holds a B.S. in Child and Family Development and a M.S. Elementary Education. In her current position, Jane supports coaches who are working in early childhood programs to support ECE professionals in providing and maintaining quality learning environments for the families and the children in their communities. She has planned evening trainings for adults and planned day long education opportunities to include families and community members.

1. What do you like most about our program design? I would really enjoy implementing a program like this as a part of an everyday schedule in working with children. This is a program that can benefit the adults and children while doing it together. I believe implementing a program like this with children from a young age can lead to them developing coping skills as they grow. Being in early childhood programs and the elementary classroom children having direction and opportunity to build coping skills is important, they have confidence to know they can handle a variety of experiences that come along. Children and adults need to be aware of many different ways to handle stress and emotions. This type of program can provide a very powerful self-soothing and comforting way to gain self-control.
2. What do you think should be improved? Why? And how? I can’t think of any improvements for this program. I believe it is a great program for adults and children to do together to build a relationship based on mutual comfort and maintain self-control and recognizing all the states of mind, body, and rest.

Program Evaluation #2

As conducted by Ashleigh Coster, Program Director with the Intercollegiate YMCA. She has been a part of the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis association since 2006.  She was born and raised in South Carolina and is a graduate of Clemson University with a degree in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management.  Ashleigh followed her passion to work with youth and has served in a variety of roles within the YMCA, including organizing youth sports leagues to supervising summer day camp programs.  In her current role, she supervises a variety of programs designed to engage college students in service opportunities in the community such as free after school programs in low income neighborhoods across Indianapolis as well as planning and leading service trips for students during the year. The Intercollegiate YMCA also has an active board which she helps meetings and facilitate retreats for.

1. What do you like most about the program design? I do love the idea of this program, and I think it sounds like you all have thought through the setup and the different aspects that would need to go into it.  I like how each section/workshop goes into detail and examples of how these workshops would be taught along with adding the practical knowledge so we can see what some of the workshop might look like.
2. What do you think should be improved? Why? And how? A couple of things that might be missing or might be helpful for someone reading this program design for the first time…

• I feel like there needs to be more set up in the beginning before the program is described.  Is this a three-day retreat?  Off site or in your work space?  Who is this intended for and will it be a mixed group of people?  The paper says it is a retreat, but then I didn’t see anywhere in the paper what that actually entails.  It just goes straight to workshop one and describing that.
• If it is truly a retreat, where you are bringing different people together from a variety of backgrounds, I think there should also be some verbiage about how this retreat is for individual growth but also how is it going to be set up for the group as a whole.  Will there be reflection times?  Are the workshops for the entire group?  If so, will there be separate times set up for everyone to practice these techniques that they are learning?

Again, if it is retreat then describing three workshops may not be suffice.  I would almost set up for the whole retreat so we can see a rough outline of how these days will be spent.  It would be nice to see how each workshop is going to flow throughout the day or how you all plan to tie each workshop together with one another.

Program Evaluation #3

Olessor Anthony obtained an Evangelist license in 2012 under the leadership of her pastor Sandra Yancy. Her work includes many trainings and workshops to include Teacher’s Training, Prophetic Training, Evangelism Training, and Leadership Training. She is continually enhancing her spiritual growth through attending professional development trainings. Serving God and missionary work is Olessor's passion. She is employed by the Chicago Public Schools Head Start Program as a Comprehensive Coordinator for more than 18 years. Olessor earned her B.A. in Family Studies at DePaul University in 2016. Olessor is a loving parent of three children and extended mother to her deceased sister’s four daughters.

1. What do you like most about our program design? The paper is astounding and I am very impressed.  The second paragraph of the introduction is a great statement of freedom with a person having a Religion and being Spiritual; one is of restraints and the other is more open minded. What I like most about the program is the overall scope of how to assist others with becoming in tune with self. My comment is this program design will be of great help as a wellness tool.  This retreat will assist with self-awareness that will bring a person to know more about themselves in a Holistic aspect.  The program will also be beneficial and life changing.  The different techniques that has been shared are great options for one’s health, inner peace, and daily activities. The design of the program can be an everyday tool for educational purposes (school), office (workplaces), churches, family gatherings, etc. This program is a way to connect the body, mind, soul, and spirit.  The inner man must come alive and align with everything else.  Shakespeare said it best, "To thy own self, be true…”

2.              What do you think should be improved? Why? And how?

• Open the program up to others and do on site presentations.
• Sharing this with our youth can counteract some of their challenges (cognitive awareness/anxiety frustration).  

Group Members’ responses

Do you agree with the evaluations or not? Why or why not?

I agree with the evaluation of Jane Gilmore. As our research determined, yoga and meditation are practices that can benefit any age group. Jane pointed out in her evaluation that she feels this is a program that adults and children could benefit while doing it together. Additionally, teaching children to the practices of holistic living in leading by example allows the adult learner and child to appreciate nature and becoming one with the universe.  ~ Jaymel G.

I agree with the evaluation of Ashleigh Coster. She mentioned putting more details about the retreat into the program design. This would allow us to give the day more structure and be more attractive to certain audiences. I also think reflection time is a great idea, since this is about the individual and self-awareness. ~ Sarah R.

I agree with the evaluation from Olessor Anthony, to a certain degree. Yes, I think that the actual retreat is great idea and tool when introducing the holistic living to selective individuals. The program can be utilized for all ages considering how it is taught. ~ Shimera T.

How would you improve your program design?

            One idea gained from Jane’s evaluation was a specified target group of adults who work with children. Because of that overall theme in her evaluation, I believe that we should narrow the target group to parents. Though Spiritual Learning using yoga, meditation, and holistic living are practices that can be adapted to any age group, the parent is the child’s first teacher. Instilling these practices in children will plant the seed as they come into adulthood and are open to the idea of mindfulness, self-control and connectivity with the universe. ~ Jaymel G.

As Ashleigh suggested, we could be more specific in the logistics of the retreat and put more details with it so we can give a better picture of where it is, what we are accomplishing, and who could attend. I would add the details to the program design, possibly in the introduction, to help establish a better idea or vision of the retreat. I would want to talk to my group mates to make sure we are all on the same page on where we want to host the retreat and what we want other individuals to get out of it. ~ Sarah R.

By adding an agenda, specified by class and category, the retreat would be well received. For media, advertising, and public support, I would provide future and current clients with an overview video and brochure about our program describing in detail yet providing the highlights and benefits only to make our program design desirable. The alternative style of living, will introduce a basic foundation and orientation on holistic living and what it entails utilizing the mind, body, soul, and spirit through retreat activities.  When customers arrive an itinerary/agenda would be provided for guests that are enrolled into the retreat. ~ Shimera T.

            As a group, we discussed our evaluations and the following changes will be implemented in the final demonstration:

• Narrow the target audience to parents.
• Provide an agenda to include location and workshop details.
• Include time for participants to reflect and provide feedback on the retreat.
• Provide resources and handouts for participants in the form of a brochure.

Group reflection

      The main highlights of our assignment were the positive feedback from evaluators and great ideas to provide a better retreat and discussing the program idea with professionals who have had experience in planning adult learning events. We worked as a team to overcome obstacles to complete the assignment. We believe the uniqueness of the program is that individuals can benefit no matter where they are in their spiritual journey. It is versatile in that it can be adapted to meet adult learners from all backgrounds. Even though we targeted parents any age can join; including participating as a family. The most significant part of the assignment is getting feedback and building the foundation so that the final project provides a comprehensive approach to spiritual learning.

Process

            In the selection of evaluators, each group member reached out to a professional who works with adult learners. Each evaluator was given a copy of the program design and asked the two questions listed in our assignment instructions. As a group, we shared our responses to the evaluations and decided what changes or adjustments were needed to our program design to be reflected in the final demonstration. We continued to meet via video conference twice a week to ensure that we were in sync and in agreeance with the final program evaluation before submission. The great thing about our group is that at the beginning of this process, we established meeting dates and times, which made it easy to stay on track.

Table 4. Summary of Program Evaluation

	Evaluators	Ideas for Improving Program Design	Revisions/Your responses
1	Jane Gilmore, B.S, M.S., Paths to QUALITY Coaching Specialist	Believes it will be a great program for adults who work with children.	Narrow target audience to parents who are the first educators of children.
2	Ashleigh Coster Program Director YMCA	Is this a three-day retreat?  Off site or in your work space?  Who is this intended for and will it be a mixed group of people?  Needs more details Will there be reflection times?  Are the workshops for the entire group?  If so, will there be separate times set up for everyone to practice these techniques that they are learning?	Put more details into the program design about logistics and flow of the day. Add reflection times to the day and/or workshops
3	Olessor Anthony Evangelist	Open the program up to youth. Provide onsite presentations.  She mentioned in her own words via telephone that she enjoyed the blueprint and lay out of the retreat. Evangelist was pleased with the design and plans to implement a retreat in her ministry.	Create and add an agenda and brochures for participants.