Позитивные изменения. Том 1, №1 (2021). Positive changes. Volume 1, Issue 1 (2021)

As a justification of importance of evidence-based approach in the social sphere, we can quote two expert heuristics: illusions of “pure field" and “absolute wealth". The first is when starting a social project and proposing a new (own) solution to a social problem, authors often ignore the existing experience in solving this problem. Such a heuristic is impossible in a case, for example of a commercial project, where an important condition for its effectiveness is taking into account the market context. But it is quite possible in the public sector and the likelihood of its occurrence is high. Market research, analysis of the target audience needs, highlighting of the leading players and existing technologies, analysis of the effectiveness of existing solutions are often not considered as mandatory when developing a social project.

The Theory of Change is most often presented in the form of a map of expected results, showing how the actions under project will lead to the achievement of the project goal.

The essence of the second heuristic is that “whatever social service we provide it is definitely a good and right thing to do." Hence the widespread, humorous concept of “doing good" arose. If the service is not of high quality, does not correspond to modern ideas (including scientific ones) regarding reasons and possible approaches to solving a social problem, etc., it cannot be said that the project really contributes to the solution of this problem.

This issue becomes especially acute in a situation where the project charity recipients are vulnerable groups who, for various reasons, cannot express their opinion regarding the quality of the social services provided to them and their general attitude to the project intervention. These are, in particular, children, people with mental disabilities, homeless people, etc. In this regard, it is reasonable that the topic of practice certification in Russia has been developed in the context of children’s programs. It is worth considering ways of its possible development and application of this cited standard as an example [Practice certification standard in the field of childhood (Version No. 2. 31 August, 2018)].

REFERENCES

1. Courtney Paul Conceptualising Social Value for the Third Sector and Developing Methods for Its Assessment [Magazine]. — [s.l.]: International Society for Third-Sector Research Voluntas, 2018 — https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266–017–9908–3: Vol. 29.

2. Ebrahim Alnoor Measuring Social Change: Performance and Accountability in a Complex World — [Book]. — 2019.

3. Grieco Cecilia Assessing Social Impact of Social Enterprises. Does One Size Really Fit All? [Book]. — [s.l.]: Springer, 2015.

4. Takyi Stephen Appiah REVIEW OF SOCIAL IMPACTS ASSESSMENT (SIA): APPROACH, IMPORTANCE, CHALLENGES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS [Magazine]. — [s.l.]: International Journal of Arts & Sciences, 2014 — Vl. 07(05):217–234 (2014).

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7. A. I. Kuzmin Local problems in development of evaluation (https://evaluationconsulting.blogspot. com/2020/10/blog-post.html).