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

The harmful effects of alcohol and other drug abuse are widespread. Our hea lth care, social service, education and legal systems are strained under th e impact of substance abuse, not to mention the economic costs associated w ith substance abuse. Consequently, effective strategies which prevent subst ance abuse must be identified and replicated. Yet, user-friendly and cost-e ffective evaluation tools for community-based substance abuse prevention pr ograms are rare, A recently developed tool that has promise to overcome som e of the barriers which exist when evaluating prevention programs is 'Resul ts Mapping'. Results Mapping documents and aims to quantify the contributio ns of a program to future outcomes of its target population with the intent ion of making data meaningful at the program and funding agency level. This case study was conducted to assess the feasibility of implementing the Res ults Mapping evaluation tool for community-based prevention programs. The s tudy assessed qualitatively how well Results Mapping worked for one communi ty-based substance abuse prevention program, as well as how much time and f unding it took to implement this new tool. Results suggested that Results M apping may be a valuable documentation, planning and learning tool, but fun ding agencies should be cautious about using Results Mapping scores to dete rmine funding allocations.