Program Description
The selected program for this analysis is titled, “Mitigating Drug Abuse”, and it is currently implemented in Pine View School. The implemented initiative seeks to educate learners about the problem of drug abuse, its effects on academic performance, and the best approaches to avoid the vice. Young individuals aged between 12 and 18 years of encounter external influence that can change their behaviors, engagements, and subsequent academic performance (Florida Health, n.d.). In some cases, most of these children might begin to abuse various substances, both legal and illegal, due to peer influence (Seçim, 2017). The provision of timely updates on addictive drugs, counseling, and education will ensure that more learners are informed and capable of focusing primarily on their academic goals.
The participants and leaders involved in the ongoing program are considering a number of attainable and realistic aims. The first goal of this project includes sensitizing students about drug abuse since it has become a common social issue affecting more learners in Osprey, Florida. The second one is guiding beneficiaries to learn more about some of the common drugs, their negative impacts on health, and their interference with the learning process (Seçim, 2017). The third goal entails supporting the inclusion of all stakeholders and empowering them to be involved in the fight against drugs. The major stakeholders of this program include counselors, students, parents, and educationists. The inclusion of professionals in the fields of health care, counseling, and drugs is expected to promote the delivery of desirable results.
The first activity intended to support the success of this program is the identification of students who will benefit from the proposed educational sessions. The involved staff members identify individuals with special needs and customize the presented instructions accordingly. The second initiative is that the involved counselors and rehabilitation experts provide timely insights about the problem. In this current program, the involved professionals encourage the selected beneficiaries to present their observations and ideas gained after the successful completion of the program (Seçim, 2017). Parents have been receiving timely updates and instructions on how to guide their children and ensure that they remain involved to address the major challenges associated with drug abuse. These initiatives are expected to possible for staff members to continue supporting this ongoing program.
Description of Models
Logic Model
The developed logic model gives a succinct summary of the designed counseling program. The framework outlines the major activities that key professionals are undertaking to deliver the targeted goals. The model begins by identifying students in the learning institution as the target population that will benefit from the successful completion of the program. The inclusion of teachers, counselors, drug abuse experts, and community members in Osprey, Florida, has helped increase chances of launching and implementing the project within the allocated time. Such measures are ensuring that the initiative delivers the much-needed results (Seçim, 2017). The participants are required to complete the outlined activities within the allocated period. The strategy has made it possible for the project to deliver most of the expected results.
The involvement of different professionals and stakeholders has made the outlined processes effortless. The developed model provides a step-by-step approach that is presently guiding all the participants to focus on their respective activities (see Appendix 1). The success of this program, as observed from the logic model, will support the replication of similar initiatives in the future to educate more students about the problematic issue of drug abuse (Seçim, 2017). This approach will encourage more learners in Osprey to get rid of the vice, thereby improving the recorded academic performance.
Evaluation Plan
The developed evaluation plan is designed in such a way that it focuses on all the key aspects of the program. The ultimate aim of this initiative is to sensitize more students in Pine View School about the challenge of drug abuse and its possible impact on educational outcomes. To ensure that the project delivers the goals outlined above, the plan identifies each of the aspects associated with them. The planners will focus on all the learners involved in counseling and educational sessions (Seçim, 2017). The number of the selected beneficiaries, including those with special needs, will dictate the duration of each session. The analysis will make it possible for the involved coordinators to identify and attract an adequate number of counselors, psychologists, and teachers. The use of evidence-based methods to measure the anticipated outcomes will guide the planners to determine the overall success of the program.
The second two sessions of the evaluation plan will focus on the overall impacts of the program on the learners. The project team will analyze its implications on the community and the learning environment. The coordinators will have to consider how the presented insights trigger a paradigm shift while encouraging more students to avoid drugs (see Appendix 2). The program will guide all the involved participants to examine the gains recorded at the community level (Seçim, 2017). The identifiable impacts from the evaluation will guide the involved professionals to determine with finality whether the project has been successful or not. The included cost benefit analysis as part of the evaluation process is critical to gauge the plausibility of the program.
Challenges
Several challenges have been recorded in the development of the presented assessment tools. First, the available information regarding the number of learners in Osprey engaging in drug abuse affected the developers’ ability to formulate the most appropriate goals. This problem has affected the overall effectiveness of the developed logic and evaluation plans (Seçim, 2017). Second, the limited nature of the allocated time has compelled the involved participants to consider key areas that would support the overall success of the program. The provision of additional time in the future could make it possible for the planners to develop better, practical, and engaging tools.
Third, the participants in Pine View School have been incurring increased expenses to contact and liaise with different professionals. Such an approach is essential to ensure that the included individuals remain supportive to make the program fruitful. Unfortunately, the recorded predicament explains why it is only possible to include a sizeable number of experts to be part of the process (Seçim, 2017). Nonetheless, these issues did not undermine the overall effectiveness of the formulated tools. Consequently, the developed logic and evaluation plans are appropriate and capable of supporting the implementation and assessment of the initiative to ensure that it delivers desirable results.
References
Florida Health. (n.d.). Substance abuse. Web.
Seçim, G. (2017). A study on substance abuse prevention. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics Science and Technology Education, 13(6), 2485-2504.