Includes summary. / Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation is a theory-driven process evaluation of a programme for street people. The programme is run by Living Grace, a faith-based organisation which aims to help clients leave a life on the street and reintegrate into mainstream society. The evaluation is intended to be formative in nature and the primary audience is the programme manager.

A formative evaluation of a workplace skills programme was undertaken to examine the programme theory, implementation fidelity and the expected outcomes. The programme targets disadvantaged youth selected from rural communities and provides them with vocational development knowledge and skills to enhance their prospects for employment. The programme theory was depicted as a Logic Model from information extracted during semi-structured interviews, programme documentation and the programme websites. Data for the implementation and outcomes evaluations was derived from existing programme records. The Logic model was assessed as being reasonably plausible at inculcating the desired individual behavioural change whilst the implementation and outcomes evaluation identified deficiencies in the monitoring records that precluded any evaluatory judgement. Recommendations related to developing a robust monitoring system and a proposal for the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour questionnaire (Ajzen, 2005) to trace the antecedents to behavioural intent were raised.

Purpose The peer support programme as run by Helderberg Association for Persons with Disabilities (HAPD) uses people who have disabilities to support people with disabilities in their own community. The purpose of this formative evaluation is to explore the roles and responsibilities of peer supporters and the needs in the community. This evaluation would help HAPD explore which areas of the peer support programme could be improved. The evaluation explored the relationship between addressable and non-addressable needs, the types of disabilities and the needs identified of the people with disabilities. Exploring these relationships would allow HAPD to understand which needs they are more likely to address and which areas they could improve their support in. Problem In South Africa, community-based rehabilitation has been evaluated but there are no evaluations that focus on the roles and responsibilities of peer supporters and the relationship between the needs that are addressed. HAPD employs and assists in the training of local people with disabilities to support people within their own community, drawing from the resources already in the community. If the peer supporters’ roles and responsibilities are not well-defined to address the needs of the community, the programme would fail. The needs of the community need to be identified to understand the community and possibly addressed the needs by providing emotional support, information, and referring cases to other service providers in the community. The evaluation explores the types of disabilities identified, the needs of the people with disabilities in the community, as well as the number of needs addressed. This information would allow HAPD to have a better understanding of the variety of home visitations the peer supporter could face and would need to provide support in. Methods The evaluation used a descriptive research design, which mainly used quantitative methods to evaluate the programme. The evaluator used some qualitative methods to enhance the understanding of the programme, these methods include a focus group with peer supporters, collecting and analysing programme documents, and interviewing the chief operating officer. The evaluator explored the relationships between the types of disabilities and the needs that were identified in home visitations. The disability categories were: physical, sensory, intellectual, and psychiatric disabilities. The needs categories as grouped by HAPD were: Health & Wellness and Education & Employment and Transport & Housing and Family & Social needs. Results There were 608 usable entries for home visitations; 43% had more than one home visitation, 79% had a physical disability and 39% of the needs were related to Health & Wellness, and 73% of the needs were addressable. There was a significant relationship between having an addressable need and the type of need category identified but no relationship between disability categories. Education & Employment needs and Health & Wellness needs were more likely to be addressed than any other need. Needs related to Transport & Housing and Social & Family issues were not as likely to be addressed. Conclusion The formative evaluation of HAPD has found that the roles and responsibilities are well-defined if implemented with the WCAPD. There is a need to increase the training in counselling topics and to provide counselling to the peer supporters. The importance of creating of referral network based from an asset-based community development perspective was also recommended as it provides tangible and valuable information on the capacities, skills and services available in the community. The evaluation also highlighted some areas of improvement regarding the record keeping of training material, improvement of data collection, follow-up of home visitations, and clearer categorising of needs and disabilities. HAPD can consider evaluating the mechanism of support the peer supporters provide to the community and how the associate organisations form part of this process.

Includes summary. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-68). / This report presents the findings of a formative evaluation of the Silence The Violence (STV) programme, a school-based violence prevention initiative. The programme is implemented by an organisation known as Khulisa Services, which has service points in all nine provinces of South Africa. The main objective of the STV programme is to reduce verbal, emotional and physical violence in schools.

This study set-out as an evaluation of Symphonia's Partners for Possibility leadership development programme for school principals in South Africa. Broadly, the goal of the programme is to improve the educational outcomes of under-resourced schools. The primary audience of this evaluation is the Partners for Possibility Operations Manager. During initial engagement with the programme stakeholders the feasibility of different evaluation types were considered. These deliberations centred on one of, or combination of, the following evaluation types: theory evaluation, process evaluation and outcomes evaluation. At first it appeared that an outcomes evaluation was entirely possible. After examining if an outcomes evaluation is feasible it became clear it was impossible to do this. As a result the focus shifted from outcome evaluation to what other kind of evaluation was feasible and acceptable to programme staff. In order to determine this, the evaluability assessment approach was utilised in order to conduct a theory evaluation and to determine if it was possible to obtain, at reasonable cost, relevant performance data. The revised programme theory behind the Partners for Possibility's programme was derived via semi-structured interviews with the programme Stakeholder Engagement Consultant and Operations Manager. A thorough analysis of programme documentation and the programme website also informed the development of the revised programme theory. The plausibility of the revised programme theory was assessed by conducting a literature review of similar evaluations and related literature. The literature review suggests that the revised programme theory is plausible. The revised programme theory can be summarised as follows: if the programme incorporates activities associated with both the instructional and transformational leadership development models then principals will be able to address the barriers that prevent their school from improving its educational outcomes. The results of the investigation into, is it possible to obtain relevant performance monitoring data, found that this was not possible. This investigation did determine that the programme has designed a monitoring system that effectively maps onto the process theory that was developed as part of the theory evaluation. However, semi-structured interviews with the Operations Manager and Stakeholder Engagement Consultant revealed that this monitoring system was not systematically maintained and that data was not available. This finding is what compromised the ability for an outcomes evaluation to proceed. It is strongly recommended that the programme staff implement and make use of their monitoring system. If the programme staff do this then a process evaluation is recommended for the programme in order to determine if the programme is implemented with fidelity.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / The concept of leadership is diverse and complex. Organisations that strive to be successful often turn to their leaders to drive efficiency and performance and to create a competitive advantage using human capital. There has been a noticeable shift in the past decade with regards to what constitutes an excellent leader. The most effective leaders are more focused on people than on outcomes, and are committed to the wellbeing and satisfaction of employees. The South African business environment has somewhat influenced the way organisations operate. Changing legislation and an ethnically diverse workplace means that leaders have to be equipped to manage change and transformation. This adds to the skill set that an effective leader should possess. Given the ever-changing nature of the business environment, there is pressure on leaders to remain charismatic and adaptable, and to ensure the same for their teams. The Leadership Development Programme evaluated as part of this research was implemented at a leading asset management organisation in Cape Town, South Africa. The programme was developed internally and has been in existence for six years. Although the programme is viewed in a positive light, these opinions are mostly based on perceptions, rather than research; and therefore the evaluation effectiveness. The programme aims to increase the leadership knowledge, skills and abilities of the participants and in turn create excellent leaders who are capable of driving organisational efficiency and performance.

The ongoing international atrocity of animal abuse is a persistent and widespread social problem within human society. The maltreatment of animals, particularly in rural impoverished contexts in South Africa continues to be a pertinent challenge facing local animal welfare organisations. Upon identifying the need to improve the conditions of animals living in the Darling community, the Swartland SPCA approached the evaluator in order to design a plausible humane education programme. The evaluator began this research by reviewing the history and underlying principles of humane education, the efficacy of humane education, as well as formalised humane education programmes. Findings from the review revealed that humane education programmes hold diminished capability for the achievement of improved animal welfare when implemented in isolation. Although these programmes aim to affect behavioural change in order to respond to the problem of animal welfare, behavioural change is not easily achieved with a simple intervention such as humane education. Thus, designing a programme for the Swartland SPCA based solely on the logic of humane education with the expectation of behavioural change was deemed problematic. Subsequently, the evaluator endeavoured to develop a novel programme design to target the problem of animal welfare in Darling. Increasingly, research points to the need for a multifaceted approach in dealing with the problem of animal maltreatment due to its complex nature as well as the fact that it is based on a large number of confounding personal, familial, social, cultural and psychological factors. To address this need, the evaluator, in consultation with the SPCA, identified a number of possible reasons as to why the problem of animal welfare was a prevalent issue within the Darling community. This highlighted the need for additional interventions that could be employed holistically to alleviate the problem of animal abuse. Given that this research concerns the welfare of animals in terms of human-directed behaviours, it was decided that humane education as a form of intervention should be investigated further in its ability to affect attitudinal change in conjunction with violence prevention and peer education / modelling interventions as additional programme components. In order to affect interpersonal violence at a behavioural level, a violence prevention component was selected with the hope that reductions in interpersonal violence may extent toward the reduction of violence and abusive behaviour towards animals. Finally, peer education / role modelling was selected as a means of involving community members in the promotion of animal welfare via the concepts developed from the humane education programme component. Since an improvement of animal welfare conditions is essentially dependant on the performance of individual behaviours, grounding the programme in a theory of behaviour change was identified as an important first step in the programme design. As such, Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour was utilised as a behaviour change model in order to guide the programme's design framework and to ensure that the programme components corresponded with theoretically identified mechanisms of behavioural change. It was anticipated that utilising a multidimensional programme design rooted in a theory of behaviour change would increase the likelihood of achieving the link between attitudinal change and behavioural change. Therefore, this evaluation provides the Swartland SPCA with a broad-based programme design which provides a variable-oriented insight into the proposed mechanisms of change and can be utilised as a framework in the adaption of programme components. It is envisioned that this tool be used by the programme stakeholders to decide on intended outcomes, select the programme activities, and further define the design details thereof. A number of recommendations are also made in order to assist with the successful implementation of this programme and its sub-components in the long term. These include lobbying for the inclusion of animal welfare and violence prevention content as part of national school curricula, obtaining a violence prevention partner organisation to assist with certain implementation considerations, and finally the importance of continuous community engagement and involvement prior to and during the programme’s roll out.

Includes bibliographical references / This dissertation is both an assessment of the fidelity, and outcomes, of a parenting programme. The programme is implemented by The Parent Centre, a non-profit organisation (NPO) which provides a range of support services for caregivers of children. The primary audience for this dissertation includes programme stakeholders such as the organisation's director, programme manager and programme facilitators. The programme theory underpinning this intervention was created in collaboration with programme stakeholders and expert opinion. Briefly, this theory assumes that by participating in the parenting programme, caregivers are likely to benefit from learning positive parenting techniques which, when used, will catalyse improvements in the relationship they have with their children, and their children's behaviour. A literature review of similar programmes' effectiveness was conducted to assess its plausibility. This review found evidence which largely supported the programme's theory. This programme theory helped guide the focus of the evaluation. A total of nine evaluation questions were formulated. Two of these aimed to determine whether the programme was implemented with fidelity. The remaining seven aimed to determine the extent to which the programme was effective in improving its intended parent and child outcomes. A range of measures were employed to answer these questions. Implementation fidelity was assessed through asking programme facilitators to complete sessional checklists, collect programme attendance and participant homework checklists for each session. A randomised controlled trial design was used to assess programme outcomes; pre and post-test interviews were conducted in people's homes which utilised a range of measures. The programme was found to be implemented with high levels of fidelity. Despite high levels of engagement also being demonstrated by those who attended, attendance rates were overall quite low. Limited evidence for programme effectiveness was found using both an intention to treat analysis, and after conducting a second analysis which took into consideration a moderator of programme effectiveness i.e., programme attendance. Poor levels of programme attendance, as well as ceiling effects on some measures at pre-test , changes in the control group over time due to control group participants accessing other parenting assistance, reactivity to the questionnaire, and finally having the post-test conducted immediately after the programme was completed , are all factors which likely contributed to one finding limited evidence for programme effectiveness. Despite these factors hindering one's ability to determine programme effectiveness, further analyses are tentatively recommended based on the results that were found. Once participants have been allowed further time to practice programme skills, it is possible that programme effects may be found. Therefore, a long-term follow-up will likely allow one to come to a stronger conclusion regarding programme effectiveness. Finally, a few recommendations are made with regards to programme design, content, delivery and monitoring of outcomes. Continued emphasis on praise, and some coverage of consistent discipline may increase the programme's effectiveness. Keeping group sizes smaller and including only parents of children of the specified ages will help ensure it is relevant to programme participants. Introducing a basic pre and post programme completion questionnaire will allow The Parent Centre to track outcome achievement over time and facilitate an understanding of participant demographics. More recommendations will be able to be made once the one-year follow-up is completed. This dissertation addresses the gaps in the literature regarding parenting programme effectiveness in South Africa, and low and middle-income countries in general.

Global citizenship programmes are proliferating around the globe, particularly in the higher education environment. The increase in such programmes has resulted from the need to produce socially - responsible graduates equipped to handle the increasingly global, complex and diverse future. Many global citizenship service learning programmes utilise the engaged and critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire. This pedagogy facilitates students in engaging critically with a variety of perspectives and encourages them to think independently. The University of Cape Town's (UCT's) Global Citizenship Programme: Leading for Social Justice was implemented through the Centre for Higher Education Development at the university from 2010 onwards. This programme utilises Freire's critical pedagogy and provides UCT students with a guided, reflective opportunity to think about themselves in the context of the world and about global issues within their local context. An iterative cycle of learning, action and reflection underpins the each of the programme's three modules. Modules can be taken individually or in any order while a student is registered at UCT. The UCT Global Citizenship Programme is the evaluand for this evaluation. The evaluation process consisted of four parts, namely: theory, design, service utilisation and short - term outcome e valuations. As the programme had not been evaluated previously, the programme stakeholders were interested in working with the evaluator to articulate the programme theory, assessing it for plausibility and determining what design and pedagogy is used in other global citizenship programmes. Service utilisation was also of interest to the stakeholders and a process evaluation focusing on whether the programme is targeting and reaching its intended recipients was also undertaken. In addition, the evaluator explored possible short - term outcomes achieved by the GC2 module, to shed light on whether the programme is producing proximal outcomes with its current approach and pedagogy. This evaluation provided an articulated theoretical grounding for the GC Programme. The theory and design evaluation produced an articulated programme theory, from the perspective of the programme stakeholders, which was modified through consultation with the social science literature. The programme was found to be comparable to the majority of other such programmes in terms of its overarching design and pedagogy. The blended - learning approach in the GC Programme was found to be a unique feature compared with other global citizenship programmes. The process evaluation of the service utilisation found that the programme reaches a small proportion of its envisioned target population, despite two of the three modules having reached their maximum class size (~100 students). This is due to the current broad definition of the target population used, which effectively includes all UCT students. Females and students from the Commerce and Humanities faculties are over - represented in the programme when compared to the general UCT student population. A word cloud analysis for the short - term outcome e valuation indicated that it is possible that the programme participants may be achieving the outcomes for GC2. Due to the fact that there is limited evaluation research in the area of global citizenship programmes, this study makes a contribution to this research and evaluation area. The recommendations suggested in this study provide workable improvements that the GC Programme staff could make to this largely sound and popular programme. By taking, in particular, the recommended steps to measure outcomes, the GC Programme could provide a much stronger case for the impact of this well - conceived programme on UCT's students.

This dissertation reports on a design and outcome evaluation of the Commerce First Year Experience (FYEM) programme. The FYEM programme is implemented by the Centre of Higher Education Department at the University of Cape Town. The FYEM programme is an academic and social supportive cooperation between universities faculties, departments, mentors and facilities for first year Commerce students. The collective efforts intend to: i) provide the first year students with a sense of belonging, ii) help students to adapt to university, and iii) offer academic and emotional to the students. A three repeated measure was used for this study. The measures were conducted in May, June and July. The first set of evaluation questions were based on the design of the programme: i) should mentoring be compulsory for first year students? ii) what is the effective duration for tertiary mentoring, iii) what is the most effective way of assigning mentors to mentees? and iv) what is the most effective medium for mentoring relationships? The second set of questions was based on the intended short-term outcomes of the programme: v) did the mentoring programme improve the psychosocial and academic attributes of students at observation time one to observation time two? vi) were these effects sustainable, meaning did the students continue to improve even after the end of the programme between observation time two and observation time three? and vii) was a difference between mentored and non-mentored students over time? The theory design results illustrated that selecting appropriate mentors requires setting up criteria based on certain characteristics. The duration of mentoring should be one year to allow the full transition of first-year students to the university. Another result showed that mentoring should be compulsory for the first year students provided that there is an opt-out option. Mentors and mentees should be given the opportunity to select their preferred individuals to work with and not be randomly assigned. Additionally, the most effective medium for mentoring was group sessions instead of one on one. The short-term outcome results for the mentoring programme were statistically insignificant due to the small sample size. There was, however, a small improvement in the means of the psychosocial and academic outcomes. After three months of the programme, there were no significant differences between the mentored and non-mentored students. The sample size may have contributed to the lack of effect as well as lack of qualitative data. In conclusion, it is evident that FYEM programme results were statistically insignificant. However, positive increases were observed for the mentored students’ sense of belonging, peer interaction, academic adjustment and engagement. The limitations of this study must be addressed so that more reliable and valid data can be gathered. The results from the design evaluation component can be used to improve the programmes’ implementation in 2017.