Yikes! You want me to spend money on evaluation: The trails and tribulations of first year evaluation of four community-based prevention programs

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

4297.0: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 5:15 PM

Abstract #45488

Charlene A. Day, PhD¹, Anita Smith Hawkins, MHS¹, Jeannette Noltenius, PhD², Starr Allen¹, and Esther Kaggwa³. (1) Health Evaluation Research Services, LLC, 7000 Carroll Avenue, Suite 200, Takoma Park, MD 20912, 301-270-4415, cadholli@aol.com, (2) Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco, 1875 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 732, Washington D.C., DC 20009, (3) Concerned Black Men, 1816 12th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009

Each year federal, state and local entities fund organizations to create and implement innovative health promotion and disease prevention initiatives for select populations in need. Health Evaluation Research Services, an evaluation firm specializing in culturally appropriate, multiple method evaluation designs is often called upon to assist these funded organizations in planning and implementing the evaluations required by the funding entity. With limited funding, and a real desire to show program impact, these organizations continue to note challenges in: developing time-phased and measurable evaluation plans, determining appropriate roles for internal evaluators, contracting with external evaluators, developing and/or validating instruments, insuring cultural appropriateness and sensitivity in evaluation design and implementation, interpreting the relevance of project data and allocating sufficient funding for program evaluation.

This session details the saga of four prevention programs in their first year of prevention program funding. The evaluation specific successes and challenges experienced by each of these organizations will be presented as well. In their own words, members of the evaluation team (composed of researchers and staff and members of the target population) for each program will highlight efforts to increase personal and organizational knowledge of the role of evaluation in program planning and implementation. They will also identify and discuss many of the serious evaluation related issues that evolved in these real life prevention program scenarios.

Learning Objectives:

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session participants will be able to

1. List the common issues and concerns of first year funded prevention programs regarding evaluation,
2. Discuss ways in which evaluation issues and concerns can be minimized by similar organizations engaging in health promotion and disease prevention,
3. Increase understanding of the evaluation strategies employed by evaluation teams composed of researchers and staff and members of the target population,
4. Understand the barriers to evaluation experienced by the four grantees charged with developing a prevention program, and;
5. Identify markers of success exhibited by first year grantees in process and outcome evaluation.

Keywords: Community Participation, Evaluation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Regional Addictions Prevention National Minority AIDS Council Concerned Black Men, National Office Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Health Evaluation Research Services
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: HERS is the contracted evaluator for the organizations listed in this abstract.

Innovative Models for Evaluating Community Health Promotion Programs

The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA