MONITORING & EVALUATION
In 2017, The Red Pencil has taken concrete steps to solidify and further improve our existing Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) practises, including hiring one staff to oversee this important mission. Additionally, we have put together a Measurement and Evaluation Framework with the guidance from experts such as Assistant Professor Ho Hau Yan Andy in Psychology of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and other research agencies.
This preparatory work has led us to define a standard M&E procedure for each type of mission conducted by The Red Pencil (residency, 3-step, local missions…)
Before each mission we send a questionnaire to our partner organisation to define the specific needs of the beneficiaries and build the objectives of the arts therapy programme;
During the missions, regular feedback from the arts therapist and the partner organisations is also gathered to add to a comprehensive assessment;
Once the sessions start, pre- and post- customized questionnaires are given to the beneficiaries to assess the changes they have been experiencing through arts therapy;
Quantitative and qualitative data is then collected, collated and analysed to measure the progress in the pre-defined markers specific to each mission (post-traumatic stress, strengths & difficulties, self-esteem, hope, social connectedness). Additionally, resilience-building is systematically measured across all missions.
The aim is to better measure how impactful and relevant our work is and to provide invaluable information in order to design the most effective arts therapy programmes and continuously improve our work.