Outcomes Framework

 Based on the four core values that underlie CentroNía’s shared philosophy and guide its decision-making (lifelong learning, social justice, family health and economic well-being, and, community empowerment), CentroNía embarked this new project which will show the results of our work in a more explicit and concrete way to funders, help improve CentroNía’s programs, and provide a blueprint for the planned expansion. It will also serve in the future as the conceptual framework for an institution-wide push to focus on evaluation and outcomes.

Macro Outcomes

As an intermediate stage between CentroNía’s Core Values and the outcomes framework, CentroNía and LTG Associates, Inc, consulting firm for this process,developed a set of macro outcomes. These macro outcomes will make sorting each program outcome in the outcomes framework into one of the Core Values a more transparent and logical process. The macro outcomes represent the overall goal or set of goals that CentroNía is pursuing for the different constituencies that it serves.

The table below lists each of CentroNía’s core constituencies and the macro outcome(s) that CentroNía is attempting to achieve with each one. In the table children are divided into three groups, Pre-K, School Age, and Youth. This allows CentroNía to specify a more developmentally appropriate set of macro outcomes.

Table 1: CentroNía Core Constituencies and Macro Outcomes.

The macro outcomes are formulated at a higher level of detail than CentroNía’s Core Values, and are thus closer in conceptual level to the individual program outcomes that will constitute the bulk of the outcomes framework. This, in turn, allows a more organized sort of program outcomes into core value. Although for brevity the macro outcomes will not be presented explicitly in the outcomes framework, they played an important role in assigning program outcomes to core values. Table 2 shows the conceptual relation between the four Core Values and the nine Macro Outcomes.

Table 2: Relation Between CentroNía’s Core Values and Macro Outcomes.

Why an Outcomes Framework?

1) Facilitating and Demonstrating Change

2) Accountability

3) Program Improvement and Expansion