What are the components of a logic model?

What are the components of a Logic Model?

While there are several ways to construct and design a logic model, our office has identified 8 essential components that partners should include in their logic models.

The sections below will list, explain, and provide guidance on the 8 components, with a real-world example stitched throughout to assist in your understanding.

Throughout the guidance below, we will provide an ongoing example to illustrate each component of a logic model.  The example we use – a mentoring program (“On Track”) serving high schools with low graduation rates  – is based on an example provided in the Community Toolbox logic model guidance.

Context

This section should answer the context or conditions for the program and what justifies the overall need for it.

1. Problem Statement

Your problem statement should be 1-2 sentences and should address the following questions:

  • What problems or opportunities does your program address?
  • What social issue(s) does your program hope to address?

Example: The high-school dropout rate is too high

2. Goal(s)/Mission Statement

Your goal/mission statement should be 1-2 sentences and should address the following questions:

  • What is the overall purpose of your program?
  • What is your program working to achieve?

Example: The OnTrack mentoring program promotes healthy youth development through positive mentor-mentee relationships to improve the high-school dropout rate.

3. Context and Rationale

Your Context and Rationale section should be 3-5 sentences and should address the following questions:

Context

  • What are some implicit underlying dynamics (social, political, cultural, economic) within the climate in which this change will take place?
  • What resources or initiatives already exist to address this problem? How will this program be aligned with existing ones to ensure an equitable distribution of resources?
  • What is the status quo that you are trying to change? What are the barriers to your program that may be important to acknowledge?

Rationale:

  • What assumptions or shared understanding motivates the need for change – what justifies the need for this program?

Example: Low rates of high school graduation in community “x” can be attributed to many restraining factors, notably that the community and schools are under-resourced. High student-to-staff ratios mean that many students do not have regular opportunities to check-in with caring/invested adults. Most of the students are living in poverty, and therefore have competing priorities and demands to enter the workforce prior to graduation.

Your Planned Work

This section should detail the resources that are needed to operate your program and provide direct evidence of the activities the program can complete if given access to these resources.

4. Resources, Inputs, Infrastructure

Your Resources/Inputs section should be a bulleted list of the resources that are invested in the program and fuel the implementation of your program.

Resources include human, financial, organizational, and community resources a program has available to direct toward doing the work. This might include staff/volunteer personnel, equipment, facilities, or time.

Example:

In On Track, the resourceful inputs include:

  • a coordinator and volunteers for the mentoring program,
  • the mentors,
  • legal agreements with participating school districts,
  • the endorsement of parent groups and community agencies,
  • a facility to host the program, and
  • time out of the mentor and mentees schedule.

5. Activities

Your Activities section should be a bulleted list with the amount of detail necessary to determine the outputs of your logic model.

Activities are what the program does with your inputs/resources “to direct the course of change” (The Community Toolbox). Activities are the processes, tools, events, technology, and actions that are an intentional part of the program implementation. These interventions are used to bring about the intended program changes or results.

“These may include products – promotional materials and educational curricula; services – education and training, counseling, or health screening; and infrastructure – structure, relationships, and capacity used to bring about the desired results.” (the Community Toolbox)

The Community Toolbox recommends “your intervention, and thus your logic model, should be guided by a clear analysis of risk and protective factors”.

Example:

The OnTrack Mentoring program will provide the following:

  • Mentor training session,
  • a referral system for mentees,
  • creating a schedule,
  • coordinating logistics of the program,
  • and booking the space.

Intended Results

This section should detail the results of activities completed (“outputs”) and how participants will benefit in the program (“outcomes”). Ultimately, it will also address the changes in organizations, communities or systems as a result of the program (i.e. “Impact”).

6. Outputs

Outputs are the direct results of program activities and may include types, levels and targets of services to be delivered by the program.  They are indicators of how effective you were in implementing your program.

Your Output section should be a list of bulleted measurable outcomes that you can expect to achieve if all of the previously listed activities are accomplished. In other words:

“They are usually described in terms of the size and or scope of the services and products delivered or produced by the program. They indicate if a program was delivered to the intended audiences at the intended “dose”. They are usually quantifiable and numerically stated metrics.

Example:

The outputs for the OnTrack program include:

  • number of mentors trained
  • number of youth referred,
  • the frequency, type, duration, and intensity of mentoring contacts
  • the number of mentoring sessions that occured,
  • the number of materials produced and distributed,
  • program participation rates.

7. Outcomes/Results

Outcomes are the specific changes in program participants’ attitudes, behavior, knowledge, skills, status and level of functioning expected to result from program activities and which are most often expressed at an individual level. Depending on the longevity of your program, it may be useful to break out your outcomes section into short and long-term goals, but this will depend on your program design and plan for evaluation. Short-term outcomes are generally attainable within 1 to 3 years, while longer-term outcomes are generally achievable within a 4 to 6 year timeframe.

Your outcomes section should be a bulleted list of changes (decreases, increases, improvements, declines) in various metrics that illustrate change that occurs over various time scales.

Example:

The OnTrack mentoring program will result in:

  • New and improved intergenerational relationships,
  • increased self-esteem and motivation among youth,
  • improvement in social/emotional learning,
  • self-reports (by youth) of increased trust toward adult mentors,
  • declines in absenteeism.

8. Impacts/Effects

Impact is change in organizations, communities or systems which are the result of program activities. These might include improved conditions in a community, increased capacity, and/or changes in policies. These usually occur 7-10 years out, and often the impact occurs after the conclusion of project funding.  Impact is not the direct outcome(s) of your program, but can be thought of as the after effects of your programs outcomes on the broader system/community/society.

Your Impact/Effects Section should be a bulleted list of these systemic changes.

Example:

The long-term impacts of the On Track mentoring program will be:

  • Improved high school graduation rate,
  • decreased drop-out rate,
  • matriculation to post-secondary programs.
How is a logic model useful?