STAY Project -Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Support

SUMMARY

Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Storytelling, Training, Advocacy, and Youth drop-in (STAY) is a project implemented by Head and Hands, that aims to respond to important issues with the Black youth in Montreal by implementing activities that will support the emotional well-being of Black youth who have been involved with child welfare or protective services. NelsonJF Consulting provided coaching, and technical support to the Project Team on the evaluation design and implementation process of the STAY Project, which is divided into three main outcomes:

• Outcome #1: Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Capacity Building;
• Outcome #2: Develop the MEL system for the STAY project;
• Outcome #3: MEL system implementation and ongoing support;

We have evaluated the MEL capacity of the STAY project stakeholders and developed training materials accordingly. In addition, we have facilitated two two-hour participative and interactive online MEL training sessions to provide the team with skills, knowledge, and tools/templates to develop a MEL system. The training was focused on some key elements of result-based management such as the logic model (LM), theory of change (ToC), and performance measurement framework (PMF). In addition, we supported the team in developing the MEL system of the STAY project, which included the LM, PMF, data collection tools, project activity tracking sheet, dashboard, and learning strategy. To do so, we used a community-based approach, which was stakeholder-driving, participative, and action-oriented. A steering committee with all stakeholders’ representatives (youth, project team, partners, etc.) has been created to guide the whole process by providing feedback and suggestions on outcomes and outputs statements, indicators, data collection strategy, etc.