Understanding and Assessing Impact of U.S. Short Term Missions 公开

Abstract

Background: Short term missions are rooted in the 17th century colonial quest to spread Christianity. As the field of short term missions emerged in the mid-1900s, it became a growing phenomenon. Today, over 1.6 million Americans participate on short term missions annually. Because of the nature of travel from high income countries to low income countries to “do good”, short term missions have implications for global health, but a gap exists in measuring impact.

Methods: An interdisciplinary literature review was conducted to understand the field of short term missions, understand the way and extent that short term missions are evaluated, and to provide a basis for recommendations of resources that can be used for assessing and evaluating the impact of short term missions.

Results: Short term missions are defined as intentionally limited, cross-cultural religiously motivated mission efforts for a predetermined length of time without participants making a residency based commitment of more than two years, with the majority of short term missions lasting for less than two weeks.

There is limited reporting on the impact of short term missions, but some researchers found that they have both positive and negative impacts. The three most common methods used for assessing impact are participant self-assessments, qualitative interviews, and anecdotes. Much of the focus was found to be on the impact the mission trip had on the participants, while the impact assessment for host communities captured more information about perceptions of impact rather than on the impacts themselves.

Based on findings from the literature review, the researcher developed an impact evaluation framework for short term missions and provided recommendations of tools and resources to use for conducting impact assessments.

Conclusion: Gaps in impact assessment make it impossible to know the scope of impact that short term missions have on global health. This special studies project demonstrates that there is a gap in measuring impact and provides recommendations that will benefit leaders in their ability to close the gap. By using the recommended resources and conducting impact evaluations, effective missions can take place to increase the positive and reduce the negative impacts.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1

Introduction and Rationale………………………………………………………………………...1

Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………………...2

Purpose Statement…………………………………………………………………………………2

Research Objectives……………………………………………………………………………….3

Significance Statement………………………….…………………………………………………3

Definition of terms………………………………………………………………………………...5

Chapter 2: Methodology…………………………………………………………………………6

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………..6

Procedures…………………………………………………………………………………………6

Plans for data analysis……………………………………………………………………………..8

Ethical considerations……………………………………………………………………………..9

Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………...9

Delimitations………………………………………………………………………………………9

Chapter 3: Literature Review………………………………………………………………….10

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………10

History of American Missions…………………………………………………………………...10

Roots of American Missions……………………………………………………………..10

American Missions in the 20th Century…………………………………………………12

Emergence of Short Term Missions……………………………………………………..13

Summary of History of American Missions……………………………………………..14

Short Term Missions……………………………………………………………………………..14

What are Short Term Missions? ………………………………………………………...14

Short Term Missions Currently………………………………………………………….16

Short Term Missions in Relation to Global Health……………………………………...17

Short Term Medical Missions…………………………………………………………...17

Summary of Short Term Missions………………………………………………………19

Understanding Impact of Short Term Missions………………………………………………….20

Overview of Impact of Short Term Missions……………………………………………20

Positive Impact of Short Term Missions………………………………………………...20

Negative Impact of Short Term Missions………………………………………………..21

Methods used to Assess Impact of Short Term Missions………………………………..22

Gaps in Assessing Impact of Short Term Missions……………………………………...24

Overview of Impact of Short Term Medical Missions…………………………………..26

Positive Impact of Short Term Medical Missions……………………………………….26

Negative Impact of Short Term Medical Missions………………………………………27

Methods Used to Assess Impact of Short Term Medical Missions……………………...29

Gaps in Assessing Impact of Short Term Medical Missions…………………………….30

Summary of Understanding Impact of Short Term Missions……………………………32

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………33

Chapter 4: Results………………………………………………………………………………36

History and Emergence of Short Term Missions………………………………………………...36

Defining the Current field of Short Term Missions……………………………………………...36

What are short term missions? …………………………………………………..………36

Scope of the field of short term missions………………………………………………...37

Known impact of short term missions…………………………………………………...37

The gap that exists in measuring impact in this field…………………………………………….38

The extent to which the impact of short term missions is assessed……………………...38

Methods used to assess the impact of short term missions………………………………39

Chapter 5: Discussion…………………………………………………………………………..40

Need for Impact Assessment of Short term Missions……………………………………………40

Common Principles and Practices……………………………………………………………….41

Engagement of Decision Makers………………………………………………………...41

Public Health Implications………………………………………………………………………42

Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………..43

Chapter 6: Recommendations…………………………………………………………………44

Recommendation #1: Understand the need for impact evaluation, know what resources are avail-able, and make a commitment to it……44

Resources………………………………………………………………………………...45

Recommendation #2: Conduct impact evaluations with both participants and recipients of short term missions………………………………47

Resources………………………………………………………………………………...48

Recommendation #3: Use findings from impact assessments to make appropriate changes……49

Resources………………………………………………………………………………...50

Additional resources……..………………………………………………………………………50

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….………52

Chapter 7: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….……54

References………………………………………………………………………………….……55

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health Theology
关键词	Mission trip Impact assessment Short term missions Short term medical missions Impact evaluation Medical missions
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dr. Mimi Kiser, Emory University

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