Most Significant Change stories

Below are significant change stories from 2 participants from the 2007 Global Connections Program.

School Name: Footscray City College
Gender: Male
Date of Story Collection: 28/11/07

From your point of view, describe the most significant change that has resulted for you, from your involvement with the Global Connections Program.

I can now approach people for chats, interviews, etc. Before I couldn’t do that and I would stand in the background. This change happened through interviewing people and talking to strangers more through the creation of the video communication piece that we sent over to Indonesia. From the letters, we have it better than the Indonesians and makes me realize how lucky we are.

Why is this significant to you?

Made me feel bad because we are really lucky. Also made me more confident in talking to people. Now I can do presentations more easily.

School Name: Northcote High School
Gender: Female
Date of Story Collection: 26/11/07

From your point of view, describe the most significant change that has resulted for you, from your involvement with the Global Connections Program.

During my experience with the global connection program I learnt a lot. I learnt to appreciate that not everybody has as good a life as me, and that there are a lot of unfortunate people in Australia and around that don’t get to experience the things that we enjoy everyday. A lot of the children from Indonesia had hardly any furniture in their homes and only had the very basics but in their photos they all looked very happy and appreciated everything they had. In Australia and especially around our area a lot of people don’t appreciate everything they have and the opportunities we get.

Why is this significant to you?

Because it has changed the way I think about things. Plan has taught me that we are all really lucky and that people can be really happy even though they don’t have many materialistic items and basic living tools.

About 'Most Significant Change' evaluation technique

The most significant change (MSC) technique is a form of participatory monitoring and evaluation. It is participatory because many project stakeholders are involved both in deciding the sorts of change to be recorded and in analysing the data. It is a form of monitoring because it occurs throughout the program cycle and provides information to help people manage the program.

MSC contributes to evaluation because it provides data on impact and outcomes that can be used to help assess the performance of the program as a whole. It is a powerful tool for monitoring, evaluation and organisational learning. MSC goes beyond simply capturing and documenting participants stories of impact. Each story is accompanied by the storyteller’s interpretation and offers an opportunity for a diverse range of stakeholders to enter into dialogue about project impact.