What are the Outcomes?
What Are Outcomes? How Are They Different from Outputs?
Outcomes are the results of a program鈥檚 services for its clients or community. They measure changes in clients鈥 circumstances, conditions and attitudes that result from the program鈥檚 work or changes in organizations and institutions directly affecting clients鈥 lives. Outcomes are fundamentally different from outputs, which are measures of the amount and type of activities a program conducts and the services it provides. Outputs are things the program produces. A program鈥檚 outputs鈥攅.g., the services provided clients鈥攁re necessary to achieve benefits for clients, but outputs data can provide no information about what benefits, if any, those services provided clients.
Outcomes
The major types of outcomes data most widely used by legal services providers are financial outcomes and non-financial outcomes. These typically correspond to or are based on the LSC Case Services Reports (CSR) system 鈥減roblem code鈥 areas鈥攅.g. Consumer, Housing, Family, and Employment. And, as discussed in more detail , the data are typically collected only for extended services cases (LSC CSR case closing codes F-L), not for limited services cases (LSC CSR case closing codes A and B).
Some examples of non-financial outcomes include:
- Evictions prevented or delayed
- Foreclosures prevented
- Divorces obtained
- Domestic violence protective orders obtained
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or other public benefits maintained or obtained
Some examples of financial outcomes include:
- The monetary value of benefits obtained, such as the retroactive amount and monthly amounts of SSI benefits
- The monthly amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, or food stamps
- The amount of back pay recovered
- The retroactive amount and monthly amounts of child or spousal support
Other financial outcomes include the value of resources preserved through actions such as bankruptcy protection, stopping debt collections or utility cutoffs, and stopping a wage garnishment.
Outputs
Outputs are the activities a program conducts and the services it provides to address the needs of its client community. Primary examples of outputs data include:
- The numbers of persons served
- LSC CSR data regarding the type and levels of services provided in different substantive law areas
- LSC 鈥渙ther services鈥 (鈥渕atters鈥) data such as:
- Pro se clinics conducted and persons participating in the clinics
- Community education sessions conducted and persons participating in those sessions
- Pro se and informational materials posted on the program and/or statewide website
- Web analytics or similar data sources regarding page hits and document downloads
- Research analyses produced
- Press releases distributed and op-eds and other materials published by program staff