Our Work
Success by Six
2-1-1
Financial Stability Partership
Public Policy
Disaster Response
 
 
 

Outcome Measurement Resource Network

Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach

Example Outcomes and Outcome Indicators for Various Programs

These are illustrative examples only. Programs need to identify their own outcomes and indicators, matched to and based on their own experiences and missions and the input of their staff, volunteers, participants, and others.

Type of Program Outcome Indicator(s)
Smoking cessation class Participants stop smoking.
  • Number and percent of participants who report that they have quit smoking by the end of the course
  • Number and percent of participants who have not relapsed six months after program completion
Information and referral program Callers access services to which they are referred or about which they are given information.
  • Number and percent of community agencies that report an increase in new participants who came to their agency as a result of a call to the information and referral hotline
  • Number and percent of community agencies that indicate these referrals are appropriate
Tutorial program for 6th grade students Students' academic performance improves.
  • Number and percent of participants who earn better grades in the grading period following completion of the program than in the grading period immediately preceding enrollment in the program
English-as-a-second-language instruction Participants become proficient in English.
  • Number and percent of participants who demonstrate increase in ability to read, write, and speak English by the end of the course
Counseling for parents identified as at risk for child abuse or neglect Risk factors decrease. No confirmed incidents of child abuse or neglect.
  • Number and percent of participating families for whom Child Protective Service records report no confirmed child abuse or neglect during 12 months following program completion
Employee assistance program Employees with drug and/or alcohol problems are rehabilitated and do not lose their jobs.
  • Number and percent of program participants who are gainfully employed at same company 6 months after intake
Homemaking services The home environment is healthy, clean, and safe.

Participants stay in their own home and are not referred to a nursing home.

  • Number and percent of participants whose home environment is rated clean and safe by a trained observer
  • Number of local nursing homes who report that applications from younger and healthier citizens are declining (indicating that persons who in the past would have been referred to a nursing home now stay at home longer)
Prenatal care program Pregnant women follow the advice of the nutritionist.
  • Number and percent of women who take recommended vitamin supplements and consume recommended amounts of calcium
Shelter and counseling for runaway youth Family is reunified whenever possible; otherwise, youths are in stable alternative housing.
  • Number and percent of youth who return home
  • Number and percent of youth placed in alternative living arrangements who are in that arrangement 6 months later unless they have been reunified or emancipated
Camping Children expand skills in areas of interest to them.
  • Number and percent of campers that identify two or more skills they have learned at camp
Family planning for teen mothers Teen mothers have no second pregnancies until they have completed high school and have the personal, family, and financial resources to support a second child.
  • Number and percent of teen mothers who comply with family planning visits
  • Number and percent of teen mothers using a recommended form of birth control
  • Number and percent of teen mothers who do not have repeat pregnancies prior to graduation
  • Number and percent of teen mothers who, at the time of next pregnancy, are high school graduates, are married, and do not need public assistance to provide for their children

Source: Measuring Program Outcomes: A Practical Approach
© Copyright 1996 United Way of America

[back to Measuring Practical Outcomes Excerpts]