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This is an example of a theory of change exercise.

The Center for Theory of Change is a non-profit organisation established to promote quality standards and best practice for the development and implementation of Theory of Change. They have placed a number of examples of theory of change exercises on their website. This theory of change exercise for a programme called ‘Project Superwoman’ was created by ActKnowledge in partnership with the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change.

Project Superwomen began as a collaboration between a social service provider, a non-profit employment training centre and a domestic violence shelter to help female abuse survivors create long-term, liveable wage employment opportunities for women who had been victims of domestic violence. The three organisations began their programme with two basic assumptions (which were integral to their theory of change):

 Non-traditional jobs (e.g. electrical, plumbing, carpentry, building management) provide better wages and more opportunities for upward mobility and are more likely to have unions. Therefore, job stability and good wages are more likely if women are trained in these areas.

 Women who have been through domestic abuse also need to develop coping skills, workplace behaviours, and have child care available. In addition, they need to be able to manage crises in their lives and such events as court appearances and dealing with the foster care system. If these aspects of their lives are not taken into account, any job training will not likely lead to permanent employment.

The theory of change exercise started by identifying outcomes and assumptions. In this case the long-term outcome was the long-term employment of domestic violence survivors at a liveable wage. To achieve that goal, the programme designers identified three preconditions: survivors attain coping skills, survivors have marketable skills in non-traditional jobs, and survivors know and have appropriate workplace behaviour. The next stage was backward mapping and drawing connections. Once a framework describing the programme was developed indicators for measuring the implementation and effectiveness of the programme were added. The focus then moved to the role of interventions (those things that the programme needed to do to bring about outcomes). Interventions included an outreach campaign, screening, setting up counselling sessions, developing a training curriculum, identifying potential employers and many others. These are represented by the boxed numbers in Figure 3.1. The final stage of the exercise was to write a narrative of the theory of change. The theory is also represented in Figure 3.1.

Figure 3.1 ActKnowledge and Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change (2003) Guided Example: Project Superwoman (available at http://www.theoryofchange.org/wp-content/uploads/toco_library/pdf/Superwomen_Example.pdf)