Background on earthquakes in New Zealand

Question:

Discuss about the Evaluation Plan for Public Awareness and Education.

About 150 earthquakes can be felt in New Zealand each year. While many are small, those that are strong and close to centers of population can cause great damage. For this reason, it’s important to educate the communities about the risks that a natural disasters can cause (EQC Earthquake Commission, 2017).However, creating awareness alone is not enough. We need to convert that awareness to action, where individuals and communities take adequate steps to reduce the impact of the threat before it occurs. According to civil defense its states that new Zealanders aren’t aware of the huge impact that natural disaster can cause. However the key to reducing loss of life, and damage from natural disasters is widespread public awareness and education (civil defense, 2017).

Community Waitakere has done a survey in the communities and realized there is a high level of awareness of what the risks are to our communities, but a low level of preparedness. People must be made aware of what natural hazards they are likely to face in their own communities. They should know in advance what specific preparations to make before an event, what to do during a hurricane, earthquake, flood, fire, or other likely event, and what actions to take in its aftermath. 

Community Waitakere is running in case of an emergency work-shop that will happen 28^th September, 5^th October and 12^th October this workshop series will outline the basic awareness of different types of disaster. Like how to identify and reduce risk from hazards, making an emergency evacuation plan, basic emergency first aid skills and effective early warning systems.

The purpose of this evaluation is to see how we could improve in the future whether or not this workshop is effective. Also, not only will we be getting feedback from the participants but also our co-host which are the different organizations we are collaborating with. Also, it is important to compare our evaluation to our last workshop feedback to see whether our participants are gaining knowledge as well as sending our data to our funders so they can see how the workshop is beneficial for the communities.

New Zealand is extremely vulnerable to earthquake that has resulted in huge natural calamities over the years. After the survey conducted, it has been known that the people are aware of the impact of the earthquake but are not prepared to handle such situations. Therefore, the community has decided to conduct a long-term workshop that will help in providing sufficient knowledge to the people to be prepared and handle situations during earthquake. The aim of the workshop is to improvise the life of the society and their people in order to combat with the drastic impact of earthquake.

Importance of educating communities

The implementation of logic model provides an opportunity for the people organizing the workshop to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. Moreover, the model can also be used during planning the workshop and implementation of the plan. As a part of the model, the people organizing the workshop has decided the venue along with giveaway package, making a plan form and allocating tasks to the associated staffs. The activities included in the workshop include lessons to be safe and keep the surrounding environment safe. In order execute the activities, quick quiz, flyers, posters was used along with food and a guest speaker. The potential outcome of the workshop is to spread awareness, preparing, planning and developing life skills to combat with such situations.

A mixed method is the most appropriate type of methodology for this workshop. Both qualitative and quantitative methods combine to form the mixed approach. Implementation of mixed methods will establish triangulation of the findings an analysis that will help in strengthening the data consistency that is collected from the workshop. Additionally, implementation of mixed methods will provide a broader understanding of the work outcomes and impacts. On the other hand, another methodology is based on the accountability of the results. This method will be helpful for this evaluation because this will provide an opportunity for the stakeholders to develop an understanding the effort given by the participants and their level of performance because of the work.

At the initial stage of the project, we tend use the evaluation process. Improvement of the on-going project is possible by conducting surveys and receiving feedbacks during the on-going workshops. Moreover, during emergencies, the workshop will also be a success. The main indicators of the process evaluation are listed below:

• Are the workshop classes being held twice a week?
• Number of people attending the workshop daily?
• Are the participants able to gain knowledge about the new skills?
• Are the participants liking the activities?
• Are enough candidates signing up for future classes?
• How significant is the workshop for the families and the individuals?
• Are the candidates willing to bring their friends and families to attend the workshop?

The primary aim of the task is to determine whether the workshop is able to influence the candidates. This will allow us to take a summative evaluation at the end of the workshop. Because of this, we prefer that the workshop is conducted long term thereby, providing life skills to the society.

The focuses of the summative evaluation are listed below:

• Has there been any change in the behavior of the candidates?
• Are the candidates signing up for the enrollment form?
• Will the candidates be able to remember what they have learned in 4 months?
• Are the candidates actively involved in the workshop?

The implementation of summative evaluation and mixed methods will provide an opportunity to compare easily between the workshop and any change in the process. By noticing the number of people attending the workshop daily, we can understand whether the workshop is improving or not. Moreover, by determining the interest level of the participants, we will be able to determine the areas that require amendment for making the workshop interesting to the candidates.

Survey results on preparedness

As a researcher, to evaluate this task involves collecting data from real participants therefore, it is important to protect those who are participating and involved in our research. It is important to build trust and also promote respect for one another in the environment we are working in. The workshop is for children and adults, therefore, it is important to give them a consent form to sign and go over the information together with them or ask them to bring parents and caregivers with them. Also, since the workshop is held in West Auckland which is multi-cultural area I need to be culturally aware and sensitive/ language when working with them. Also keeping their names, address or numbers confidential when doing evaluation

Ethical considerations need to be followed and implemented strictly while collecting data for the evaluation plan. As a part of the survey, data were collected for the residents of the locality. Therefore, the researcher needs to ensure that the data collected from the participants are treated unanimously. The researcher must keep the identity of participants confidential and is not supposed to disclose without their consent. Establishing trust and respect for the participants will thereby, make the data collection process easy and smooth. Consent from the parents is significant as the workshop includes children as well.

For both process and summative evaluations, I will conduct a survey and print a questioner for the participants. Also talk to each participants to gain understanding of their experiences in workshop. Doing an interview and survey allows flexibility in questions, which gives us more chance to get more facts or perhaps ask more questions if one question doesn’t work for them.

During the workshop, we will also give questioner and that will also give strong data for the evaluation.   I will also use the signup sheet to see the number of participants who attended each day in the workshop. Therefore it will give an indication of whether or not numbers are growing.

As a part of the data collection, we will devise questionnaire according to the aim of the workshop. Implementing primary data collection methods will help us in understanding the current knowledge of the community. Therefore, we will be able to understand the areas that we need to consider while conducting the workshop. Moreover, collecting primary data in terms of interview will allow the participants to share their point of view and opinion in detail. Additionally, interview will allow us to know the depth of knowledge within the children and develop the workshop accordingly. 

Workshop series details

The outcomes we look for in this program would be:

• 10 participant to attend each workshop
• 80% to take part of the activities
• 70% to get all correct answers on the quiz

Participants show an understanding how to Planning and preparing for an emergency

• developing life skills and share knowledge with each other
• social connectedness and Bringing local communities coming together

Because this workshop has been done before and this is the second series.  It is likely the number of participant may increase. And the only way to judge the success of the workshop is the number of people who will attend. 

The above are the looked-for outcomes, however, as we are aware of the outcome may change each day our goal is to give questioner’s and get the participants to sign the enrollment for each workshop. 

The evaluation process will help in determining the success of the workshop by evaluating the number candidates attending the workshop along with number of people taking part in the activities and number of correct answer for the quiz. The aim of the evaluation process is to ensure that almost 10% of the candidates are attending the workshop along with ensuring that 80% of the participants are taking part in the activities and receiving 70% correct answers for the quiz. The aforementioned percentages will determine the rate of engagement and success of the workshop. In addition to, the level of knowledge gained by the participants for handling emergencies also highlights the aim of the evaluation process. 

When the final process is completed in the evaluation, I will then collect all the information provided from the participants. I will then need to compile the information I gathered and give to my supervisor which she will start putting all the data we collected in to word document and share with community Waitakere boss. Who will want to understand how the workshop is beneficial for the community and if it will be successful to continue in the future. 

The final evaluation report will be done in results based accountability which then will be send to the ministry of health who wants to know how much did we do? How well do we do it? Are the communities better off as result of our work.

Post evaluation, after collecting relevant data from the participants, I will be compiling the information. Compilation of the collected data will help in using the data for modifying the workshop according to the results obtained. Accountability will be used lastly for the final evaluation of the process for the collected data. This will help in understanding the amount of effort that was put while conducting the workshop, the rate of success and the benefitted community. The answers of the aforementioned questions will be then sent to the health ministry.

As this is a small workshop the staffing requirements for the evaluation isn’t large. There will be three people working on it. Two of us will be the ones that will write the survey questions and making sure we send emails and collect all the results from our participants and also our co-host feedbacks. Our supervisor will be the one who will approve all our work and she will the one working on the final evaluation report that will be send to our funders.

Large numbers of staffs are not required for the workshop, as this is not operated at a large scale. Therefore, associating less number of people with the workshop will save the finance and utilize it wisely for developing other features of the workshop. In order to determine, if we are heading to the right direction, we will report to our supervisors. Therefore, in the case of any mistake, we can correct us and progress in the right direction.

The objectives of the workshop have been given a time span to make to successful and determine the impact on time. Dividing the tasks and activities based on the time will help us to be organized and keep track of the progress. Moreover, we will also be able to determine whether each task has been completed rightfully or requires modification for successful completion of the activities.

The budget total will only be $100 dollars which will be for printing the evaluation forms. However most of the other things will be cost free as the organization will pay for as when the workshop takes place.

As the workshop is conducted for the betterment of the society and the people, we do not need to spend much. We will only require spending money for printing the evaluation form and the rest of the expense will be provided by the organization, once the workshop commences. This is because the organization will be provided with money for conducting the workshop form the government.

References; 

Bamberger, M. (2013). The Mixed Methods Approach to Evaluation (1st ed.). Retrieved from https://www.socialimpact.com/press-releases/MME613.pdf

EQC Earthquake Commission. (2017). Earthquake. Retrieved from https://www.eqc.govt.nz/be-prepared/earthquake

Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. (2017). Home. Retrieved from https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/

Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management. (2017). Home. Retrieved from https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/

Stats New Zealand. (2016). How prepared are New Zealanders for a natural disaster? Retrieved from https://m.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/Households/natural-disaster-how-prepared-nzers.aspx