The Results Are In: Findings from Up and Running Guelph’s 2021–2022 Program Evaluation
Up and Running Guelph provides group walking and running programs that aim to improve women’s mental health via green exercise. We have a great time providing these programs, and our weekly interactions with our participants keep us motivated to keep doing what we’re doing. Having a great time is important, but it’s equally important for us to know if our program is working well and actually making a difference in the lives of our participants. We do this through program evaluation.
A forest trail in the fall with art filter (source: Lu Zhao).
In 2021 and 2022, Up and Running Guelph worked with a program evaluation consultant from Collective Results to help us understand how our program is working and impacting those who attend. It was important for us to work with an evaluation consultant so that we could have an unbiased look at our program.
The program evaluation consultant worked with our team to help us develop a logic model that helps us understand what our program is trying to achieve (ie. our outcomes) and which components of our program contribute to those outcomes (ie. the inputs and activities). This is an important first step for any program evaluation because it’s hard to know if your program is working and making a difference if you don’t understand how the program is supposed to work and the difference it’s supposed to make.
Up and Running Guelph's Walking and Running for Women program logic model.
Collective Results then helped us to identify evaluation questions that we wanted to answer under two key types of evaluation:
(1) Process Evaluation – How much did we do and how well did we do it?
Who is Up and Running Guelph reaching?
How did participants experience the program?
What can Up and Running Guelph do to improve the participant experience?
(2) Outcome Evaluation – Is anyone better off?
Have participants’ physical and mental health improved since attending Up and Running Guelph?
Are participants leaving Up and Running Guelph with a sense of confidence?
Has participants’ connection to nature improved?
Are participants less lonely after attending Up and Running Guelph and has their sense of belonging improved?
Did participants experience any other unintended impacts?
The program evaluation consultant also designed participant surveys and collected data from our program participants before and after our Winter 2021, Spring 2022, and Summer 2022 programs. With this approach, we were able to look at whether participants experienced any changes in key metrics after the program compared to where they were at before the program. You’ll remember that we experienced multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic while we evaluated our programs, and we expect that this likely influenced some of our results.
The consultant shared back the results from the evaluation with our Board recently, and now we’re excited to share them with our participants and other members of our community who are interested in our program.
Key Findings from the Process Evaluation
Up and Running Guelph reached a fairly consistent group of participants who were mostly white individuals that identify as female, aged 19-77, living in Guelph, educated at a post-secondary level, English speaking, and who were born in Canada. Our organization has set a goal to improve diversity and inclusivity in our programs, and this confirms that we have more work to do on this goal.
Our program participants had largely positive experiences: 96% said that their experience with the program was good, very good, or excellent. We were really happy to see this.
When we asked participants what we could do to improve Up and Running Guelph, their top two suggestions were: (1) more organized social events and (2) more volunteer training. We are bringing these suggestions to our program committee to see how Up and Running Guelph’s programs can respond to them.
Key Findings from the Outcome Evaluation
Up and Running Guelph participants reported improved mental health, psychological wellbeing, and self-confidence after the program compared to before the program.
Participants also reported slight improvements in their physical health after the program compared to before the program.
Up and Running Guelph participants reported spending more time in nature after the program compared to before the program.
Up and Running Guelph participants reported being more comfortable visiting a local park for a walk or a run and having more knowledge of local trails after the program.
Up and Running Guelph participants reported feeling slightly more connected to the community after attending Up and Running Guelph.
The top four other impacts reported by participants include: (1) more and better social connections, (2) improved mental health or mood, (3) more time to be in and/or appreciate nature, and (4) getting out of the house.
Use the button below to read the full program evaluation report.
We’ve learned a lot from this program evaluation process, and we’re excited to use these findings to continue improving our programs and advocating for funding and support for our programs. And special thanks to the team at Collective Results for their help with this evaluation.
