Theory of Change
A planning and evaluation approach that maps how activities are expected to contribute to outcomes and longer-term change.
Center for Theory of Change
This page is a plain-English practice summary. It attributes the source field and avoids presenting the framework as Positively Devious intellectual property.
What this framework helps with
- making assumptions explicit
- linking activities to outcomes
- designing learning and evaluation questions
Three questions it helps teams ask
- What has to be true for this activity to lead to that outcome?
- Which assumptions are weakest or least evidenced?
- What would we expect to see early if the theory is working?
How to use it in youth and community work
Use Theory of Change as a lens for better decisions, not as a script. Start with the local context, invite the people affected by the work into the interpretation, and turn the framework into practical questions, design choices and learning habits.
For Positively Devious, this framework matters because it helps explain one part of the wider conditions around positive deviance: the relationships, opportunities, skills, systems and power arrangements that make uncommon positive outcomes more likely to be noticed and learned from.
What to watch out for
- a theory of change is not proof that change happened
- linear diagrams can hide complexity
- young people and communities should test the assumptions