“The New Beginnings “ Program Evaluation

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in young adults is a significant concern in today’s society. People living with ASD may encounter challenges after graduating from high school, as they have limited opportunities. The New Beginnings program is dedicated to addressing this problem and helping young adults to find jobs, gain independence, and improve their professional skills. This report presents a program evaluation plan that addresses its goals, target outcomes, and steps to achieve them.

Program Evaluation Plan

Program Information

Program Evaluation

Program’s Goals

Target Outcomes

Steps to Achieve Target Outcomes

Results Analysis

Action Plan

Responsible Individuals

Time Frame

The primary goal of the program is to prevent young adults living with ASD from becoming dependent on their parents or guardians for the rest of their lives. The New Beginnings program aims at assisting young people after graduation in reaching their maximum potential, as well as guiding them towards independence. The program also aims at developing community relationships in south Florida. Within the program, students are screened and evaluated from the perspectives of their ability to function in the community.

To increase the degree of young adults with ASD independence from other people;
To provide program participants with the opportunity to develop new professional, communicational, and life skills; to teach them how to express and recognize emotions (Koegel, Ashbaugh, Navab, & Koegel, 2016);
To help young adults with ASD to implement new knowledge into practice and gain steady employment.

To increase the participants’ confidence in themselves (McCauley et al., 2019), to help them in developing critical thinking skills;
To improve participants’ employability by developing strong sets of professional skills, implement life skills training sessions, increase participants’ knowledge related to jobs that they choose (Taylor & DaWalt, 2017);
To collect statistical data and monitor changes in employment rates, help participants to analyze their priorities and choose the path of development, and collect data on participants’ training outcomes.

To analyze the results of the evaluation, the outcomes of the program will be evaluated. First, the success of the program will be measured through surveys and other quantitative methods of data collection, such as participant observation. Second, skill assessment tests will be performed to evaluate changes in participants’ professional capacities. Third, the feedback of mentors will be collected after life skill training sessions. Fourth, performance evaluation reports will be collected from participants’ employers and analyzed. Finally, the feedback from participants will be evaluated to identify their levels of satisfaction with the program’s outcomes.

Goal 1:

Perform surveys among the participants.
Perform participant observation.

Goal 2:

Perform skill assessment tests.
Collect the mentors’ feedback.
Collect participants’ feedback.
Analyze the mentors’ and participants’ feedback.

Goal 3:

Collect performance evaluation reports from participants’ workplaces.
Analyze employers’ feedback.

Goal 1:
[Insert name]
Goal 2:
[Insert name]
Goal 3:
[Insert name]

Goal 1:
6 months
Goal 2:
3 months.
Goal 3:
8 months.

Conclusion

Program evaluation is crucial for analyzing the effectiveness of the program, as well as its significance and efficiency. The evaluation will aim at reviewing mentors’ and employers’ feedback, changes in participants’ skills, as well as performing tests and surveys. Selected assessment methods, along with the action plan, are designed in reliance on the steps for achieving target outcomes. The time frame for the project evaluation is six months for the first goal, three months for the second objective, and eight months for the last one.

References

Koegel, L. K., Ashbaugh, K., Navab, A., & Koegel, R. L. (2016). Improving empathic communication skills in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(3), 921-933.

McCauley, J. B., Harris, M. A., Zajic, M. C., Swain-Lerro, L. E., Oswald, T., McIntyre, N…. Solomon, M. (2019). Self-esteem, internalizing symptoms, and theory of mind in youth with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 48(3), 400-411.

Taylor, J. L., & DaWalt, L. S. (2017). Brief report: Postsecondary work and educational disruptions for youth on the autism spectrum. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 47(12), 4025-4031.