Asking good questions Headcounts vs. Changed Lives - Outcome Data Enhance Community Services Outcome information answers questions about how people benefit from the programs in which they participate. It rounds out the data most often collected about a program - the number of people served, types of activities offered, number of hours of service provided, and so forth. There are numbers and there are numbers. The headcounts and hours of service often measured provide valid, important information about the nature and scope of a program. They represent the program s outputs.
Outputs are different from outcomes.
Outcomes concern changes in people s knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, behavior, condition, or status. Outcome data demonstrate the effects of the activities and hours of service provided. Outcome information answers questions about how people benefit from the programs in which they participate. Program staff can use outcome data to spot problems and remedy them. Agencies have an opportunity to market and plan based on tangible evidence of change.