Training, monitoring and evaluation: Key components of a successful community programme

The introduction of a structured training, monitoring and evaluation programme for Pro Sport Development’s community sports programme in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, is providing a way of continually improving the programme to help its impact on underprivileged children in local slums.

Pro Sport Development’s (PSD) community sports programme in Bhubaneswar, Eastern India, started in September 2015. By the end of December, PSD will have increased the programme to five centres working with over 300 children from the slums of Dumduma and Saliasahi. As the programme has and will continue to grow, it is important for there to be a structured training, monitoring and evaluation programme in place.

The programme is monitored by observing the sessions and recording certain observations, including: the aims of the games and whether these aims are being met, how the children are responding and the positives and negatives of each session. The week’s observations are then compiled to collate the main points noted from the sessions at various centres. This gives us a clear understanding of how the programme is going and whether it is having the intended impact.

Regularly training the coaches to deliver the sessions is another key component of the programme. This is undertaken by having training plans that outline the games to be taught, taking into account the observations from evaluation of the trainers implementing the programme. The evaluation of the coaches looks at their communication, organisation, game knowledge and creativity. It also reports whether they are following PSD’s polices, such as gender equality, health and safety and child protection, and gives a summary of the positives and areas for improvement.

The observations from the sessions allow us to identify any issues in the programme and allow us to change certain aspects of the sessions to improve the content and delivery of the programme. The monitoring and evaluation of the trainers helps us to improve the coaches' delivery of their sessions. It also ensures that the coaches are compliant with the values and expectations of PSD and that they are able to lead good quality sessions.

Overall, having the training, monitoring and evaluation processes in place has allowed the programme to grow and improve, ensuring the children are benefitting from its impact. There has also been positive feedback from the school’s teachers and management, who have informed us that they believe the children are benefitting from their experience of participating in the programme.