Video 8: Outcome Tracker & Outcome Tracking Strategy

Outcome Tracker & Outcome Tracking Strategy

This section will provide you with an overview of the Outcome Tracker and Outcome Tracking Strategy

An outcome tracker must be developed for each project objective. The outcome tracker aligns information from the project framework with a means for measurement and annual targets for achievement. The outcome tracker is designed to support project staff in monitoring progress during project implementation. The outcome tracker should include information that is consistent with components of the ANA Project Framework that are logically connected. Included is a table that can be used to present a visual representation of this information.

This is video eight of the 2021 Pre-application Training Videos developed by the Administration for Native Americans Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centers. I'm your trainer today, Drena MacIntyre. I'm with the Alaska Region Training and Technical Assistance Center. The Alaska Region Training and Technical Assistance Center offers free training and technical assistance to the 227 tribes in native nonprofits located in the State of Alaska. You can reach us at www.anaalaska.org or call 800-948-3158. This is a 16 video series in which ANA would like to introduce you to the basic concepts for preparing a 2021 ANA grant application to support your community-based project. There are 16 videos in the series and we recommend that you take them in sequence. This is Video 8 of Pre-application Training: Outcome Tracker and outcome tracking strategy. The application needs to sufficiently include an Outcome Tracker that will show logical connections between the longterm community goal, current community condition, project goal, objectives, outcomes, indicators and outputs. The application needs to fully identify an accurate and viable means for measuring each indicator which can be effectively and consistently used to assess progress. The Outcome Tracker includes rational targets for the required points in time baseline, end of each project year and end of project period and also a three-year post project period which are supported by the means for measurement. And your proposal should identify an appropriate outcome tracking strategy plan that includes staffing, effective data management systems, and an organizational process that will successfully utilize data to inform and improve your program quality. This is the Outcome Tracker form that is included in your manual. And ANA recommends that you use this to help you lay out how you will track project data and successes. You've already established what your longterm community goal is, your current community condition, your project goal, and what your objectives are. So you would fill those in verbatim as you've already established them. And then you would work on primary outcome and you already have your indicator and primary outcomes so you would repeat those here and then determine what your means of measurement would be based for baseline, project year one, year two, year three, and through your post project. And then discuss the outputs that come from those. Using that table, go ahead and copy and paste the following into your Outcome Tracker. And I just relayed those to you. You've already established all of these so just cut and paste what you've already written. And then you need to work on defining and entering the following into your Outcome Tracker. What means of measurement you will use, what the baseline measure will be before the project starts and then benchmarks for each project year and then also three year post project. So for your means of measurement, you need to determine what method will be used to measure the change created by completing the objective. And then the baseline is what is the starting point for the constant that you're going to be measuring. Benchmark targets for the end of each project year. And that would include years 1, 2, 3, and 4 Esther Martinez would go four or five as well. And then ANA asks you to do a three-year post project or kind of a visioning or guesstimate of where you think your program will be three years after the end of the project period. Here's an example, Outcome Tracker. And you can also find this on page 60 of the manual, the pre-app manual. And this is Pine Creek tribes, Outcome Tracker. And remember their longterm community goal was already established. It's our community members are healthy, vibrant, and self-sufficient. Their current community condition, where there is fresh produce in our community costs five times the state average. And their project goal is to reduce fresh produce cost to the community by implementing farming innovations. They already had established their objective and their outcomes and indicators were established as well. And so for their means of measurement, they've chosen the cost of each of these items, the fruit and veg. And you can see that they've listed them here in the baseline. In year one, they're anticipating that there's not going to be any reduction in the costs. But by the end of year two, they're expecting 20% reduction. At the end of year three or end of project, 40% reduction because of the farming innovations that they utilized to improve the situation. And here they're anticipating to maintain that 40% reduction three years after project is done. For an Environmental Regulatory Enhancement project, this is an example of a healthy shellfish subsistence project and this is their Outcome Tracker. And you can see that they're building a regional HAB monitoring program that will include analytical capacity to test local partners shellfish samples. They're going to track high levels of PSTs to hopefully reduce the number of illnesses or deaths caused by consuming toxic shellfish. And they described what their current community condition was that the paralytic shellfish poisoning, and other marine biotoxin illnesses were on the rise in Coastal Alaska communities. So they wanted to address that in their project goal by developing a tribally led HAB monitoring program in coastal Alaska that will provide accurate information data to community subsistence harvesters to reduce that risk of PSP illness and death. And their objective is by the end of year one to collect 46 phytoplankton samples per community on the coast to determine abundance of Alexandrium cells that will be used as an early warning to shellfish harvesters. And their outcome is that coastal partner communities will have an increased awareness of when and where the blooms will occur in the region and how those data can be used as an early warning for PSP levels in shellfish. And their indicator is that informed community members of the cell densities at key harvest sites. So this is a prevention program is what it looks like. And then their means of measurement is those weekly data uploaded to their database and mapping tool. The baseline, they're leaving at zero, and then project year or the end of project year one, 322 phytoplankton observations are gonna double that by the end of year three. And then post project, they want to almost double that again. And their are outputs basically would be that they would host annual training sample and teach sampling protocols and methods modified to fit community needs. They provide outreach and education material disseminate in each community. And they'll have phytoplankton abundance data shared with their tribal councils and tribal citizens. For a language Outcome Tracker, their longterm community goals is that all Deer Creek Pottawattamie community members will be fluent in their native language. They described their current community condition is that only 5% of their Deer Creek tribal members are fluent in their language, and new learners have limited language learning resources. So their project goal is then to develop Pottawatomie language resources specific to Deer Creek in a cadre of language speakers who are interested in becoming instructors and leaders for the Deer Creek Pottawattamie community. And their objective is by the end of the three years, 14 project participants between ages of 18 to 60 years of age, so adults will have attended 1800 hours of immersion language instruction, with a minimum of seven participants or 50% is their target, increasing their language skills to a medium or a high level of proficiency and that's our indicator. And so their outcome is that those seven or 50% of the Deer Creek members will participate in the project and reach that level of proficiency. Their indicator is an increased language skills to that medium or high level of proficiency. The means of measurement are the language assessments for each of those project participants. And those will be completed twice a year. The baseline is zero to minimal language skills and then project year one, low to medium level, and project year, medium level. And end of project, high, medium to high level. And then they're hoping that three years post project they would all have reached a high level. And you can see their outputs are participants who have received hours, hundreds of hours of immersion language instruction per year and completing language assessments and receiving modified immersion classes to address language deficiencies and strengthen their language skills. For SEDS Alaska, an example of an Outcome Tracker relates to their longterm community goal of having an effective and efficient tribal government that can apply for and utilize the resources available to federally recognized tribes to meet community needs. And their current community condition states that the tribe does not have the capacity right now to apply for funding and managing programs available to federally recognized tribes, specifically in the areas of public health and housing. And this is due to limitations of its current internet technology network that is outdated and not linked together. And so their project goal is to increase the capacity of their tribal government through purchasing new computer hardware and software so that tribal employees and tribal leadership are linked together with the same operating system, and all employees and leadership are functioning under the newly developed IT policies and procedures. And then their objective, their number one objective is to get people trained in computer knowledge and skills and efficiency and will benefit from the new internet network and policies adopted by the tribal council. Their outcome is that new computer operating system and policies will promote improved linkages. Their indicator is increase in knowledge skills of staff and leadership. And then the means of measurement are pre and post testing of tribal employees of new operating systems and policies. Their baseline is zero of employees having knowledge of new operating system. By the end of year one, 13 employees have an enhanced knowledge. By the end of year two, 25 employees have enhanced knowledge. End of project, 35 employees have enhanced knowledge. And it looks like the total number of folks that work for this tribe is 35. And so they would also have post project three years of 35 employees having enhanced knowledge. And their outputs include 40 new computers and operation system, 35 employees trained. For tribal council members trained new internet use policies created a new server, digital telephones for tribal organization. So on page 65 of your manual is more discussion about your Outcome Tracker. And you will also see that there's this activity and this table that you can use for your project. And I'd like you to go ahead and take a stab at it. Remember, you've already written your longterm community goal, your current community condition, project goal and your objective. And you've also started on your outcome an indicator list. So go to that table and think about what your means of measurement will be. What method will you use to measure the change of the objective, establish what your baseline is, or your starting point for the variable being measured, and then what those benchmarks are going to be for each of the years in your Outcome Tracker. The Alaska Region Training and Technical Assistance Center is here to answer any of your questions. And we offer 16 hours of free pre-application review for any application that's at least 75% complete. We provide tips and resources to help you complete your application. And if you want to request technical assistance on your application, just go to www.anaalaska.org, then click on technical assistance and then go to Request TA, and someone will respond to you quickly. You can also call 800-948-3158.

Up next

Video 9: Objective Work Plan

Objective Work Plan (OWP)

Training episodes

Video 1: Brief Introduction to ANA and New Funding Opportunities

Video 2: How to Build your ANA Application

Video 3: Long-Term Community Goal

Video 4: Current Community Condition

Video 5: Project Goals

Video 6: TTIP Objectives

Video 7: Outcomes, Indicators, and Outputs

Video 8: Outcome Tracker & Outcome Tracking Strategy

Video 9: Objective Work Plan

Video 10: Budget

Video 11: Community-Based Strategy

Video 12: Readiness and Implementation Strategy

Video 13: Contingency Plans

Video 14: Sustainability Plans

Video 15: Organizational Capacity

Video 16: Submitting the Application to ANA

Video 8: Outcome Tracker & Outcome Tracking Strategy

Outcome Tracker & Outcome Tracking Strategy

Up next

Video 9: Objective Work Plan

Training episodes

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