What are indicators?

Indicators answer the question: What would I see or hear that would tell me that an outcome was being achieved? Indicators are concrete, specific descriptions of what will you will measure. An indicator can include the number or percentage of participants projected to achieve it.

What are some examples of indicators?

For example, let us say that one of your outcomes is “Participants make their home child-safe”. What would you see or hear that would tell you that a participant has a child safe home? Here are a few possible indicators:

• Participants access and install supplies needed to have a child-safe home.
• Participants remove household hazards that jeopardize child safety.

Indicators can project a targeted number or percentage of participants who will achieve them. For example, “85% of the participants access …”

Where can I download a list of indicators that my program might be able to adapt?

FRIENDS has created a menu of outcomes and indicators that are targeted by prevention programs. You can view the menus by clicking here. You can also view them as a component of the Logic Model Builder described previously. If you choose to build a logic model using this system, you will be able to search the outcomes and indicators by key-words and construct.

Please note: The tool-kit menu of outcomes and indicators has extensive lists of outcomes. There should be some that are appropriate for your program, but you will want to word-smith and make other edits so that they are accurate reflections of what your services target. In other words, please do not “pick and click” and stop there.

What does the term performance target in indicators mean?

This means adding numbers to the indicators. When you specify the amount of change expected in a specific time-frame, you are setting what are called “performance targets”. You will want to be very cautious in setting your performance targets, to make sure that they are neither too ambitious nor too easy to attain. To learn more about performance targets, click here.

Where can I find more information on indicators?

FRIENDS has developed a resource on indicators, to view this information, click here.

Alternative terms: performance objectives, performance targets, objectives