Evaluating prevention programs with the Results Mapping evaluation tool: a case study of a youth substance abuse...

The harmful effects of alcohol and other drug abuse are widespread. Our health care, social service, education and legal systems are strained under the impact of substance abuse, not to mention the economic costs associated with substance abuse. Consequently, effective strategies which prevent substance abuse must be identified and replicated. Yet, user-friendly and cost-effective evaluation tools for community-based substance abuse prevention programs are rare. A recently developed tool that has promise to overcome some of the barriers which exist when evaluating prevention programs is 'Results Mapping'. Results Mapping documents and aims to quantify the contributions of a program to future outcomes of its target population with the intention of making data meaningful at the program and funding agency level. This case study was conducted to assess the feasibility of implementing the Results Mapping evaluation tool for community-based prevention programs. The study assessed qualitatively how well Results Mapping worked for one community-based substance abuse prevention program, as well as how much time and funding it took to implement this new tool. Results suggested that Results Mapping may be a valuable documentation, planning and learning tool, but funding agencies should be cautious about using Results Mapping scores to determine funding allocations.