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Logic Model Development

by Hassan Bandesha

A logic model is an instrument that is used by funders, evaluators, and managers of programs to assess how effective a program is.  A Logic model graphically portrays the logical relationships between activities, resources, outcomes, and outputs of a human service program. The logic model also offers stakeholders a map that defines the order of events that connect the requirement for a planned human service program with the expected results of the program. A logic program is, therefore, an easy way of linking a certain human service program to its quality, outcome, and output performance measures. Get in touch with Dissertation Help Online 

A logic model provides a comprehensive description of the human service program, the expected outputs, and the outcomes that are intended to be achieved. They help to examine the long-term as well as the intermediate outcomes, examine where a program is currently at and where it wants to be after a certain time, and also to examine what kinds of measures of performance or additional research is required to comprehensively the results of the services provided by the program. The development of a logic model changes the manner in which evaluators think about their programs, the way they prioritize issues and how they budget for the improvement of the program. When developing a logic model for a human service program, one needs to start with a difficulty that has been identified by the human resource agency and encompassed in the agency’s strategic plan. All the succeeding foundations of the logic model and the program should come from the same list of assumptions as the strategic plan of the agency as well as support it. (Colleti, 2006). For a similar paper follow the link Buy Term Paper Online  The process of developing a logic model for human service encompasses several tasks. These tasks include:

 

1st Task: Specify the Agency, Community or Social Problem

 

Many human service programs are usually made to address a certain problem. While identifying the certain problems, it is important to get a clear difference between a problem and a condition. A condition is something that presents itself in a community but has not yet been recognized, or labeled as a problem, officially. The formal recognition of a condition can be done by things like county boards of supervisors, school boards, state legislatures, city councils, agency boards, and other appointed or formally elected groups. A problem is, therefore, a condition that is negatively defined. Formal recognition is important because it makes the process of securing funding and support for a community more efficient.

There are social problems that are dealt with human service programs that are financed by local, federal or state governments through contracts and grants. Such human service programs include Head Start (deals with the social problem of disadvantaged children’s education preparation), Job Training (deals with the unemployment problem), and Congregate Meals for Seniors (deals with the social problem of isolation and malnourishment of the elderly). In such programs, the language of the ordinance, statute or law that created the program will specify the social problem that will be dealt with. Some sources of federal funding are usually designed to deal with problems broadly.  Such sources of funding are not usually connected to any specific problem and are usually viewed more like ‘funding streams’ that are created to provide a local community with funds to take care of its needs and local problems. Examples of such funding sources are the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG).  Such funding is normally general and is not specific to any community or social problem. When funding for human service programs becomes more grant-oriented, these programs often infer the problems they deal with instead of finding explicit statements in federal regulations and law. For the development of valuable performance measures, it is crucial that the connection between a specific problem and the human service program that deals with it is explicit. (Connell, 2009).