Logic Models

A Chesterfield County (Va.) initiative, Compliance Checks: A Community Approach was among those recognized recently as Bright Ideas by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Today, CADCA hosted Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna for a coalition site visit and neighborhood walk in the Inwood community of northern Manhattan. The event kicked-off with a visit to a CADCA-member organization, the UNIDOS Coalition, a New York-based community organization working to reduce youth drug abuse and its associated problems throughout the Inwood community. The goal was to introduce Fedotov to the community coalition model and to demonstrate how a local community coalition is helping to reduce drug abuse and its related problems.

Some coalition leaders—eager to implement strategies in their communities—ask why they should develop a strategic plan after they have completed their logic model. However, a good strategic plan builds on the work that a coalition has done in developing a logic model by expanding the planning process and creating objectives for measurable outcomes.

CADCA's 2011 Mid-Year Training Institute, being held July 24-28 at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Anaheim, Calif., will feature a working session on logic models. Participants will be provided with a common format that they will use to strengthen their current logic model(s).

In last month's audio podcast, Jane Callahan, Director of CADCA's National Coalition Institute, explained the concept of a logic model and how it helps coalitions define their goals and efforts within the context of their communities.

Before your coalition can really address a problem in the community, you first need to learn as much as you can about that problem. One of the best ways to make a roadmap that links the needs and resources of your community to strategies and activities that address the issue is by developing a logic model. Logic Models not only help coalitions identify problems and their root causes in a community, but also show how coalition members and diverse community sectors fit into a broader framework of positive population-level change and outcomes.

As part of its strategic planning, CADCA's National Coalition Institute has developed a logic model which outlines its Theory of Change, Aims, Outcome Measures, Strategies, benchmarks and activities for the 5-year period from 2008-2013, its current grant period.

Sample logic model referenced in the CADCA National Coalition Institute's Evaluation Primer.