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The Program Success Story: A Valuable Tool for Program Evaluation

Division of Oral Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, rlavinghouze @cdc.gov

Ann Webb Price, PhD

Community Evaluation Solutions, Inc., in Alpharetta, Georgia

Kisha-Ann Smith, MPH, CHES

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Success stories are evaluation tools that have been used by professionals across disciplines for quite some time. They are also proving to be useful in promoting health programs and their accomplishments. The increasing popularity of success stories is due to the innovative and effective way that they increase a program's visibility, while engaging potential participants, partners, and funders in public health efforts. From the community level to the federal level, program administrators are using success stories as vehicles for celebrating achievements, sharing challenges, and communicating lessons learned. Success stories are an effective means to move beyond the numbers and connect to readers—with a cause they can relate to and want to join. This article defines success stories and provides an overview of several types of story formats, how success stories can be systematically collected, and how they are used to communicate program success.

Key Words: success stories • program evaluation • using evaluation results

References

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This version was published on October 1, 2007

Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 8, No. 4, 323-331 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1524839907306408


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Lavinghouze, R. Articles by Smith, K.-A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lavinghouze, R. Articles by Smith, K.-A. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?