The theory of change of the evaluation support program: Enhancing the role of community organizations in providing an ecology of care for neurological disorders

Abstract

This paper discusses the Ontario Brain Institute's theory of change for the Evaluation Support Program, a program designed to enhance the role of community organizations in providing care and services for people living with a brain disorder. This is done by helping community organizations build evaluation capacity and foster the use of evidence to inform their activities and services. Helping organizations to build capacities to track the 'key ingredients' of their successes will help ensure that successes are replicated and services can be improved to maximize the benefit that people receive from them. This paper describes the hypothesized outcomes and early impacts of the Evaluation Support Program, as well as how the program will contribute to the field of evaluation capacity building.

Keywords: Brain health; Community organization; Ecology of care; Evaluation capacity building.