Abstract
One broad goal of museums is to benefit community members, within their respective museum missions. Some museums are expanding their audiences beyond traditional on-site visitors to broaden and diversify their impacts, including at-risk populations. Evaluation of newly developed museum-based programs is important for program staff, partners, and sponsors to understand effectiveness of, and to find ways to improve, their programs. This study assessed perceived impacts of a museum-based program, Your Story and Mine (YSM), which was developed for homeless adults in mid-Michigan. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with six program participants. Based on a three-tier “hierarchy of evidence” framework, developed specifically for evaluating the YSM program, responses were coded and categorized into three levels of impacts: i) knowledge/awareness gain; ii) attitude and behavior change; and iii) group development. An emerging fourth response category, “program features” valued by respondents, was added. Participants’ responses reflected their perceptions of program benefits