Guide to Project Evaluation: A Participatory Approach

Appendix 9: Sample Guidelines For Keeping a Project Diary

Children's Safety Awareness Project

We are asking a few people in each of the five pilot communities to keep a project diary during this next year. The diary is your own record of your experience of using the resource materials to do child safety awareness work in your community. There is no right or wrong kind of information to collect. You may decide to note thoughts that you have, ideas that come to you about what you think would work better, anecdotes that actually describe what you did and how you felt about what happened. All of this information will help us put the human side and your unique community experience into the evaluation. Everything we learn from the collective learnings will be identified and shared with you. Anonymity of individuals will be preserved.

To help us put some structure to the analysis of the material and provide some consistency across all of the communities, we will be using the information in your project diary to answer the following questions:

1. What difference did each of the following elements of the project make to your community's experience of carrying out child safety awareness activities?
   1. money
   2. project sponsor's presence in the community
   3. resource materials
   4. program consultant.
2. What are the major challenges to getting awareness activities going and to keeping them going in your community?
3. Were there any ways in which the information in the resource material provided help to individuals, coordinating and planning groups and agencies in the communities to address the challenges? Describe.
4. What are you learning about planning and implementing child safety awareness aimed at changing beliefs, attitudes and behaviours?
5. What suggestions do you have about making the resource materials more accessible and useful?
6. How do community projects keep volunteers interested, committed and actively involved in child safety awareness work? Who gets involved?

Remember - you just jot down experiences and thoughts you have through the year that relate to your involvement with the child safety awareness project. You do not have to directly answer the above questions. Building collective answers to these questions is our job. Keeping the diary should be enjoyable, not onerous, so do what works for you. Thanks.

Have Fun!

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