Outlining a Logic Model A logic model is a tool that can be used in planning a program. Using a logic model, social workers can s
Assignment: Outlining a Logic Model
A logic model is a tool that can be used in planning a program. Using a logic model, social workers can systematically analyze a proposed new program and how the various elements involved in a program relate to each other. At the program level, social workers consider the range of problems and needs that members of a particular population present. Furthermore, at the program level, the logic model establishes the connection between the resources needed for the program, the planned interventions, the anticipated outcomes, and ways of measuring success. The logic model provides a clear picture of the program for all stakeholders involved.
To prepare for this Assignment, review the case study of the Petrakis family, located in this week’s resources. Conduct research to locate information on an evidence-based program for caregivers like Helen Petrakis that will help you understand her needs as someone who is a caregiver for multiple generations of her family. You can use the NREPP registry. Use this information to generate two logic models for a support group that might help Helen manage her stress and anxiety.
First, consider the practice level. Focus on Helen’s needs and interventions that would address those needs and lead to improved outcomes. Then consider the support group on a new program level. Think about the resources that would be required to implement such a program (inputs) and about how you can measure the outcomes. THE LOGIC MODEL (OUTLINE) HANDOUT SHOULD BE COMPLETED AND THE PARAGRAPHS BEING ASKED, SHOULD BE WRITTEN OUT. ALSO, PUT THE HEADLINES FOR EACH SECTION.
By Day 7
Submit the following:
- A completed practice-level logic model outline (table) from the Week 7 Assignment handout
- A completed program logic model outline (table) in the Week 7 Assignment Handout
- 2–3 paragraphs that elaborate on your practice-level logic model outline. Describe the activities that would take place in the support group sessions that would address needs and lead to improved outcomes
- 2–3 paragraphs that elaborate on your program-level logic model and address the following:
- Decisions that would need to be made about characteristics of group membership
- Group activities
- Short- and long-term outcomes
- Ways to measure the outcomes
Week7: Developing a Logic Model Outline Handout
Complete the tables below to develop both a practice-level logic model and a program-level logic model to address the needs of Helen in the Petrakis case history.
Practice-Level Logic Model Outline
|
Problem |
Needs |
Underlying Causes |
Intervention Activities |
Outcomes |
Program-Level Logic Model Outline
|
Problem |
Needs |
Underlying Causes |
Intervention Activities |
Outcomes |
© 2014 Laureate Education, Inc. Page 1 of 1
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The Petrakis Family
Helen Petrakis is a 52-year-old heterosexual married female of Greek descent who says that she feels overwhelmed and “blue.” She came to our agency at the suggestion of a close friend who thought Helen would benefit from having a person who could listen. Although she is uncomfortable talking about her life with a stranger, Helen said that she decided to come for therapy because she worries about burdening friends with her troubles. Helen and I have met four times, twice per month, for individual therapy in 50-minute sessions. Helen consistently appears well-groomed. She speaks clearly and in moderate tones and seems to have linear thought progression; her memory seems intact. She claims no history of drug or alcohol abuse, and she does not identify a history of trauma. Helen says that other than chronic back pain from an old injury, which she manages with acetaminophen as needed, she is in good health. Helen has worked full time at a hospital in the billing department since graduating from high school. Her husband, John (60), works full time managing a grocery store and earns the larger portion of the family income. She and John live with their three adult children in a 4-bedroom house. Helen voices a great deal of pride in the children. Alec, 27, is currently unemployed, which Helen attributes to the poor economy. Dmitra, 23, whom Helen describes as smart, beautiful, and hardworking, works as a sales consultant for a local department store. Athina, 18, is an honors student at a local college and earns spending money as a hostess in a family friend’s restaurant; Helen describes her as adorable and reliable. In our first session, I explained to Helen that I was an advanced year intern completing my second field placement at the agency. I told her I worked closely with my field supervisor to provide the best care possible. She said that was fine, congratulated me on advancing my career, and then began talking. I listened for the reasons Helen came to speak with me. I asked Helen about her community, which, she explained, centered on the activities of the Greek Orthodox Church. She and John were married in that church and attend services weekly. She expects that her children will also eventually wed there. Her children, she explained, are religious but do not regularly go to church because they are very busy. She believes that the children are too busy to be expected to help around the house. Helen shops, cooks, and cleans for the family, and John sees to yard care and maintains the family’s cars. When I asked whether the children contributed to the finances of the home, Helen looked shocked and said that John would find it deeply insulting to take money from his children. As Helen described her life, I surmised that the Petrakis family holds strong family bonds within a large and supportive community. Helen is responsible for the care of John’s 81-year-old widowed mother, Magda, who lives in an apartment 30 minutes away. Until recently, Magda was self-sufficient, coming for weekly family dinners and driving herself shopping and to church. But 6 months ago, she fell and broke her hip and was also recently diagnosed with early signs of dementia. Through their church, Helen and John hired a reliable and trusted woman to check in on Magda a couple of days each week. Helen goes to see Magda on the other days, sometimes twice in one day, depending on Magda’s needs. She buys her food, cleans her home, pays her bills, and keeps track of her medications. Helen says she would like to have the helper come in more often, but she cannot afford it. The money to pay for help is coming out of the couple’s vacations savings. Caring for Magda makes Helen feel as if she is failing as a wife and mother because she no longer has time to spend with her husband and children. Helen sounded angry as she described the amount of time she gave toward Magda’s care. She has stopped going shopping and out to eat with friends because she can no longer find the time. Lately, John has expressed displeasure with meals at home, as Helen has been cooking less often and brings home takeout. She sounded defeated when she described an incident in which her son, Alec, expressed disappointment in her because she could not provide him with clean laundry. When she cried in response, he offered to help care for his grandmother. Alec proposed moving in with Magda. Helen wondered if asking Alec to stay with his grandmother might be good for all of them. John and Alec had been arguing lately, and Alec and his grandmother had always been very fond of each other. Helen thought she could offer Alec the money she gave Magda’s helper. I responded that I thought Helen and Alec were using creative problem solving and utilizing their resources well in crafting a plan. I said that Helen seemed to find good solutions within her family and culture. Helen appeared concerned as I said this, and I surmised that she was reluctant to impose on her son because she and her husband 20 SESSIONS: CASE HISTORIES • THE PETRAKIS FAMILY seemed to value providing for their children’s needs rather than expecting them to contribute resources. Helen ended the session agreeing to consider the solution we discussed to ease the stress of caring for Magda. The Petrakis Family Magda Petrakis: mother of John Petrakis, 81 John Petrakis: father, 60 Helen Petrakis: mother, 52 Alec Petrakis: son, 27 Dmitra Petrakis: daughter, 23 Athina Petrakis: daughter, 18 In our second session, Helen said that her son again mentioned that he saw how overwhelmed she was and wanted to help care for Magda. While Helen was not sure this was the best idea, she saw how it might be helpful for a short time. Nonetheless, her instincts were still telling her that this could be a bad plan. Helen worried about changing the arrangements as they were and seemed reluctant to step away from her integral role in Magda’s care, despite the pain it was causing her. In this session, I helped Helen begin to explore her feelings and assumptions about her role as a caretaker in the family. Helen did not seem able to identify her expectations of herself as a caretaker. She did, however, resolve her ambivalence about Alec’s offer to care for Magda. By the end of the session, Helen agreed to have Alec live with his grandmother. In our third session, Helen briskly walked into the room and announced that Alec had moved in with Magda and it was a disaster. Since the move, Helen had had to be at the apartment at least once daily to intervene with emergencies. Magda called Helen at work the day after Alec moved in to ask Helen to pick up a refill of her medications at the pharmacy. Helen asked to speak to Alec, and Magda said he had gone out with two friends the night before and had not come home yet. Helen left work immediately and drove to Magda’s home. Helen angrily told me that she assumed that Magda misplaced the medications, but then she began to cry and said that the medications were not misplaced, they were really gone. When she searched the apartment, Helen noticed that the cash box was empty and that Magda’s checkbook was missing two checks. Helen determined that Magda was robbed, but because she did not want to frighten her, she decided not to report the crime. Instead, Helen phoned the pharmacy and explained that her mother-in-law, suffering from dementia, had accidently destroyed her medication and would need refills. She called Magda’s bank and learned that the checks had been cashed. Helen cooked lunch for her motherin-law and ate it with her. When a tired and disheveled Alec arrived back in the apartment, Helen quietly told her son about the robbery and reinforced the importance of remaining in the building with Magda at night. Helen said that the events in Magda’s apartment were repeated 2 days later. By this time in the session Helen was furious. With her face red with rage and her hands shaking, she told me that all this was my fault for suggesting that Alec’s presence in the apartment would benefit the family. Jewelry from Greece, which had been in the family for generations, was now gone. Alec would never be in this trouble if I had not told Helen he should be permitted to live with his grandmother. Helen said she should know better than to talk to a stranger about private matters. Helen cried, and as I sat and listened to her sobs, I was not sure whether to let her cry, give her a tissue, or interrupt her. As the session was nearing the end, Helen quickly told me that Alec has struggled with maintaining sobriety since he was a teen. He is currently on 2 years’ probation for possession and had recently completed a rehabilitation program. Helen said she now realized Alec was stealing from his grandmother to support his drug habit. She could not possibly tell her husband because he would hurt and humiliate Alec, and she would not consider telling the police. Helen’s solution was to remove the valuables and medications from the apartment and to visit twice a day to bring supplies and medicine and check on Alec and Magda. After this session, it was unclear how to proceed with Helen. I asked my field instructor for help. I explained that I had offered support for a possible solution to Helen’s difficulties and stress. In rereading the progress notes in Helen’s chart, I realized I had misinterpreted Helen’s reluctance to ask Alec to move in with his grandmother. I felt terrible about pushing Helen into acting outside of her own instincts. My field instructor reminded me that I had not forced Helen to act as she had and that no one was responsible for the actions of another person. She told me that beginning social workers do make mistakes and that my errors were part of a learning process and were not irreparable. I was reminded that advising Helen, or any client, is ill-advised. My field instructor expressed concern about my ethical and legal obligations to protect Magda. She suggested that I call the county office on aging and adult services to research my duty to report, and to speak to the agency director about my ethical and legal obligations in this case. In our fourth session, Helen apologized for missing a previous appointment with me. She said she awoke the morning of the appointment with tightness in her chest and a feeling that her heart was racing. John drove Helen to the emergency room at the hospital in which she works. By the time Helen got to the hospital, she could not 21 SESSIONS: CASE HISTORIES • THE PETRAKIS FAMILY catch her breath and thought she might pass out. The hospital ran tests but found no conclusive organic reason to explain Helen’s symptoms. I asked Helen how she felt now. She said that since her visit to the hospital, she continues to experience shortness of breath, usually in the morning when she is getting ready to begin her day. She said she has trouble staying asleep, waking two to four times each night, and she feels tired during the day. Working is hard because she is more forgetful than she has ever been. Her back is giving her trouble, too. Helen said that she feels like her body is one big tired knot. I suggested that her symptoms could indicate anxiety and she might want to consider seeing a psychiatrist for an evaluation. I told Helen it would make sense, given the pressures in her life, that she felt anxiety. I said that she and I could develop a treatment plan to help her address the anxiety. Helen’s therapy goals include removing Alec from Magda’s apartment and speaking to John about a safe and supported living arrangement for Magda.
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Figure 31.1
Logic Model
Logic Models
Karen A. Randolph
A logic model is a diagram of the relationship between a need that a
p rogram is designed to addret>s and the actions to be taken to address the need and achieve program outcomes. It provides a concise, one-page pic- ture of p rogram operations from beginning to end. The diagram is made up of a series of boxes that represent each of the program's com ponents,
inpu ts or resources, activities, outputs, and outcomes. The diagram shows how these components are connected or linked to one another for the purpose of achieving program goals. Figure 31.1 provides an example of the frame work for a basic logic model.
Th e program connections illustrate the logic of how program operations will result in client change (McLaughlin & Jordan, 1999). The connections show the "causal" relati on- ships between each of the program components and thus are referred to as a series of"if- then" sequence of changes leading to th e intended outco mes for the target client group (Chinman, hum, & Wandersman, 2004). The if-then statements represent a program's theory of change underlying an intervention. As such, logic models provide a framework that g uides the evaluation process by laying out important relationships that need to b e tested to demonstrate program results (Watso n, 2000).
Logic models come from the field of program evaluation. The idea emerged in response to the recognition among program evaluators regardin g the need to systema tize the p r ogram evaluation process (McLaughlin & Jordan, 20 04). Since then , logic models have become increasingly popular among program managers for program planning and to monitor program performance. With a growing emphasis on accountability and out- come measurement, logic models make explicit the entire change process, Lhe assu mp- tions t hat underlie this process, and the pathways to reach ing outcomes. Researchers have begun to use logic models for intervention research planning (e.g., Brown, Hawkins, Arthur, Brin ey, & Abbott, 2007).
The followin g sections provide a description of the components of a basic logic model and how these compon ents are linked together, its relationship to a p rogram's theory of
[ : Inputs 1–_.,•1 Ac~vities ,II—-.~•{ .Outputs ·11—~·1 Outcomes I AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author wishes to acknowledge Dr. Tony Tripodi for his though lful comments on a drafl of this chapter.
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548 PART V • CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH
change, and its uses and benefits. The steps for creating a logic model as well as the chal- lenges of the logic modeling process will be presented. The chapter concludes with an example of how a logic model was u~cd to enhance program outcomes for a family liter- acy program.
Components of a Logic Model
Typically, a logic model has four components: inputs or resources, activities, outputs, and outcomes. Outcomes can be further classified into short-term outcomes, intermediate outcomes, and long-term outcomes based on the length of time it takes to reach these outcomes (McLa ughlin & Jordan , 2004) . The components make up the connection between the planned work and the intended results (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). The planned work includes the resources (the inp uts) needed to im plement the program as well as how the resources will be used (the activities) . The intended results include the outputs and outcomes that occur as a consequence of the planned work. Figure 31.2 expands on the model illuslrated in Figure 3 1.1 by adding examples of each component. This particular logic model, adopted from frec htling (2007), provides an illustration of the components of an intervention designed to prevent substance abuse and other prob- lem behaviors among a population of youth. The intervention is targeted toward improv- ing parenting skills, based on the assumption that positive parenting leads to prosocial behaviors among yo uth {Bahr, Hoffman, & Yang, 2005). The following section provides definitions and examples of each logic model component, using this illustration.
Resources Resources, sometimes referred to as inputs, in clude the human, fin ancial, organizational, and community asse ts that are available to a program to achieve its objectives (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). Resources are used to support and facilitate the program activities. They are usually categorized in terms of funding resou rces or in -kind contribu- tion s (Frechtling, 2007) .
Some resources, such as laws, regulations, and funding requirements, are external to the agency (United Way of America, 1996). Other resources, such as staff and money, are easier lo quantify than others (e.g., community awareness of the program; Mertinko, Novotney, Baker, & Lange, 2000). As Fn.:c:htli ng (2007) notes, it is important to clearly and tho roughly id ent ify the available resources during the logic modeling process because this information defines the scope and parameters of the program. Also, this inCormation is critical for others who may be interes ted in replicating the program. The logic model in Figure 31.2 includes fu nding as one of its resources.
Activities Activities represent a program's service methodology, showing how a program intends on using the resources described previously to carry out its work. Activities are also referred to as ac tion step!; (McLaughlin & Jordan, 2004). They are the highly specifi c tasks that p rogram staffs engage in on a daily basis to provide services to clients (Mertinko et al., 2000) . They include all aspects of pro gram implementation, the processes, tools, events, technology, and program actions. The ac tivities form the foundation toward facil- itating intended client changes or reaching oulcornes (W. K. Kellogg Fo undation, 2004). Some examples are establishing community councils, providing professional develop – ment training, or initiating a media campaign (Frechtling, 2007). Other examples are
CHAPTER 31 • l OCIC MO DELS 549
Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes
Short Term Intermediate Long Term
Feedback Loop j _J
I Decreased
K~ Increased
I Develop and Numbe r of Increased
youth Funds .~ initiate ~edi a st~tions a~opti ng r– awareness f- positive 1—–+ of positive substance -~m~tg~– -.:::c -campatgn J pa renting parenti ng – abv?~d'
~-'.:-
/ I
Develop and Number of Increased distribute – 1> fact sheets 1- enrollment
fact sheets distributed in parenting programs
Fig ure 31.2 Example of l ogic Model With Com ponents, Two Types of Connections, and a Feedbaclc loop
providing shelter for homeless families, educating the public about signs of child abuse, or providing adult mentors for youlh {United Way of Ame rica, 1996) . Two activities, " Deve lop and initiate media campaign" and "Develop and distribute fact sheets;' are included in the logic model in Figure 31.2. Activities lead to or produce the program o ut- puts, described in the following section.
Outputs The planned works (resources and activities) bring about a program's des ired res ul ts, including outputs and outcom es (W. K. Kell ogg Foundatio n, 2004) . Outputs, also referred to as units of service, are the immediate results of program activities in the form of types, levels, and targets of services to be delivered by the program (McLaughl in & Jordan , 1999). They are tangible products, events, o r serv ices. They provide the documentation that activities have been implemented and, as such, indicate if a program was delivered to the intended audience at the intended dose (W. K. Kellogg FounJation, 2004). Outputs arc typical ly desc ribed in terms of th e size and/or scope of the services an d products pro- duced by the program and thus are expressed numerically (Frechtling, 2007). Examples of program ou tpu ts include the number of classes ta ught, meetings held, o r materials p ro- duced and distributed; program par ticipation rates and demography; or hours of each type of serv ice provided (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004) . Other examples are the number of meals provided, classes taught, brochures distributed , or participants ser ved (Frecht1ing, 2007) . W hile outputs have little inherent value in themselves, they provide the link between a program's activ ities and a program's outcomes (United Way of America, 1996). The logic model in Figure 31.2 includes Lhc number of stations adopting the media campaign and the number of fact sheets distributed as two outputs for the pre- vention program.
550 PART V • CONCEPTUAL RESEARCH
Outcomes Outcomes arc Lhe specific changes experienced by the program's clients or target group as a consequence of participating in the program. Outcomes occur as a result of the program activities and outputs. These changes may be in behaviors, attitudes, skill level, status, or level of functioning (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004). Examples include increased knowl- edge of nut r itional needs, improved reading skills, more effective responses to conflict, and finding employment (United Way of America, 1996) . Outcomes are indicalors of a program's level of success.
McLa ughlin and Jordan (2004) make the point that some programs have multiple, sequential outcome structures in the form of short-term outcomes, intermediate out- comes, and long-term outcomes. In these cases, each type of outcome is linked tempo- rally. Short-term outcomes arc client changes or benefits th at are mos t immediately associated with the program's outputs. They are usually realized by clients wi thin 1 to 3 years of program completion. Short-term outcomes are linked to accomplishing inter- mediate outcomes. Intermediate ou tcomes are generally attain able in 4 to 6 years. Long- term outcomes are also referred to as program impacts or program goals. They occur as a result of the intermediate outcomes, usually within 7 to 10 years. In this format, long- term outcomes or goals are directed at macro-level change and target organizations, co m- munities, or systems (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2004).
As an example, a sequen tial outcome structure with short- term, intermediate, and long-term outcomes for the prevention program is displayed in Figure 31.2. As a result of hearing the public service announ cemen ts about positive parenting (th e activity), parents enroll in parenting programs to learn new parenting skills (the short-term outcome). Then they apply these newly learned skills with their children (the intermediate out- come), which leads to a reducti on in substance abuse among youth (the long-term impact or goal the parenting program was designed to achieve).
Outcomes ar e often confused with outputs in logic models because their correct clas- sification depends on the context within which they are being included. A good exa mple of this potential confusion, provided in the United Way of America manual ( 1996, p. 19), is as follows. The number of clients served is an output when it is meant to describe the volume of work accomplished. In this case, it does not relate directly to cl ient changes or benefits. H owever, the number of clients served is considered to be an outcome when the program's intention is to encourage clients to seek services, such as alcohol treatment. What is important to remember is that outcomes describe intended client changes or benefits as a result of participatin g in the program while outputs document products or services produced as a result of activities.
Links or Connections Between Components
A critical part of a logic model is the connections or links between the components. The connections illustrate the relationships between the components and the process by which change is hypothesized to occur among program participants. This is referred to as the program theory (Frechtling, 2007). It is the con nections illustrating the program's theory of change that make the logic model complicated. Specifying the connections is one of the more difficult aspects of developing a logic model because the process requires predicting the process by which client change is expected to occur as a result of program participation (Frech tling, 2007).
CHIII'TER 31 • lOGIC M ODtLS 551
Frechtling (2007) describes nvo types of connections in a logic model: connections that link items within each compo nent and connections that illustrate the program's theory of change. The first type, items within a component, is connected by a straight line. This line shows that the items make up a particularcomponent.As an example, in Figure 31.2, nvo activities, "Develop and initiate media campaign" and " Develop and distribute fact sheets," are linked together with a straight line beca use they represent the items within the activities component. Similarly, two outputs, "Number of stations adop ting the cam- paign" and "Number of fact sheets distributed;' arc connected as two items within the outputs component.
The second type of connection sh<.>ws how the components interact with or relate to each other to reach expected outcomes (Frechtling, 2007) . In essence, this is the program's theory of change. Thus, instead of straight lines, arrows are used to show the direction of influence. Frechtling (2007) clarifies that "these directional connections are not just a kind of glue ancho ring the otherwise floating boxes. Rather they portray the changes thaL arc expected to occur after a previous ac Livity has taken place, and as a result of it" (p. 33). She points out that the primary purpose of the evaluation is to determine the nature of the relationships between components (i.e., whether the predictions are correct). A logic mod el that illustrates a fully developed theory of change includes links between every item in each co mponent. In other words, every item in every component must be co n- nected to at least one item in a subsequent component. This is illustrated in Figure 3 1.2, which shows that each of the two items within th e activities co mpon en t is linked to an item within the output co mponent.
Figure 31.2 provides an example of the predicted relationships between the compo- nents. This is the program theory about how the target group is expected to change. The input or resource, funding, is co nnected to the tv,ro activities, "Develop and initiate media campaign" and "Develop and distribute fac t sheets." Simply put, this part of Figure 31 .2 shows that funding will be used to support the development and initiati on of PSA cam- paigns and the distribution of fact sheets.
The sequencing of the connections between components also shows th at these steps occur over a period of time. While this may seem obvious and relatively inconsequential, specifying an accurate sequence has time-based implications, pa rticularly when short- term, intermediate, and long-term outco mes are proposed as a part of the theory of change (Frechtling, 2007). Rcca11 that the short-term outcomes lead to achieving the intermediate outcomes, and the intermediate outcomes lead to ach ieving long-term out- comes. Thus, the belief or underl}ing ass umption is that short-term outco mes mediate (or come between) relationships benv-een activities and intermediate o utcomes, and intermediate outcomes mediate relations between sho rt-te rm and long-term outcomes.
Related, sometimes logic models display feedback loops. Feedback loops show how the information gained from implementing one item can be used to refine and improve other items (Frechlling, 2007). f or instance, in Figure 31.2, the feedback loop from the short- term outcome, " Increased awareness of positive parenting;' back to the activity, "Develop and initiate media campaign;' indicates that the findings for " Increased awareness of pos- itive parenting" arc used to im prove the PSA campaigns in the next program cycle.
Contextual Factors
Logic models describe programs that exist and are affected by contextual factors in the larger environment. Contextual factors are those important features of the environment
552 PART V • CONCEPTUAL R ESEARCH
in which the project or inter vention takes place. They include the social, cultural, and political aspects of the environment (Frechtling, 2007). They are typically not under the program's control yet are likely to influe nce the program either positively or negatively (McLa ughlin & Jordan, 2004 ). T hu s, it is critical to identify relevant contextual factors and to consider their potential impact on the program. McLaughlin and Jordan (1999) point out that understanding and articulating contex tual factors co ntr ibu tes to an under- standing of the fo undat io n u pon whi ch performance expectatio ns a re established. Mo reover, this knowledge h elps to establish the parameters for explaining program results and developing program improvement strategies that are li kely to be more m ean- ingful and thus more successful because the information is more complete. finally, con- textual factors clarify situations under which the program results might be expected to generalize and the issues that might affect replication (Frechtling, 2007) .
Harrell, Burt, Hatry, Rossm an, a nd Roth ( 1996) identify two types of contextual fac- tors, antecedent and media6ng, as o utside facto rs that could influence th e program's design, implementa tio n, and results. Anteceden t factors are thos e that exist prior to program implemen tatio n, such as cha racteristics of the client target population o r com- munity characteristics such as geographical and economic conditions. Mediating factors are the environmental influences that emerge as the program unfolds, such as new laws and policies, a change in economic con ditions, or the startup of other new programs pro- viding similar services (McLaughlin & jordan, 2004).
Logic Models and a Program's Theory of Change
Definition Log ic models p rovide an illustration of the compo nents of a program's theo t-y and how those components are linked togeth er. Program theory is defined as "a plausible and sen- sible model of how a program is supposed to wo rk" (Bickman, 1987, p. 5). Program theory in corporates "program resources, program activities, and intended program out- comes, and specifies a chain of causal assumptions linking resources, activities, interme- di ate outcomes, and ulti mate goals" (Wholey, 1987, p. 78). Program theory e.>..-plicates the assumptions abou t how the program components link together from program star t to goal attainmen t to realize the program's intended outcomes (Frechtling, 2007). Thus, it is often referred to as a p rogram's theory of change. Frechtling (2007) suggests that both previous research and knowledge gained from practice experience arc useful in develop- ing a theory of change.
Relationship to logic Models A logic model provides an il
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