The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49273

Clarissa Hsu, PhD, Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Group Health Community Foundation, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 287-4691, hsu.c@ghc.org, William Beery, MPH, Kaiser Permanente Community Foundation, 1730 Minor Avenue, Suite 1500, Seattle, WA 98101, and Maria Casey, MA, MEd, Partnership for the Public's Health, Public Health Institute, 505 14th Street, suite 810, Oakland, CA 94612.

The mission of the Partnership for the Public's Health (PPH) is to develop effective, responsive and sustainable public health systems. PPH aims to strengthen the capacity of communities and health departments to respond to community-based priorities and work together to improve community health. A key PPH strategy is promoting community-based public health partnerships. In this Initiative, a community-based participatory model for evaluation has played an important role in moving the Initiative toward its goals. This presentation and paper describe the processes and challenges of designing and implementing a community-based participatory evaluation for a complex, multi-site initiative. In particular, the presentation will highlight: 1) the use of a multi-layered evaluation design that allows communities to participate in the design and implementation of local evaluation efforts in order to build internal evaluation capacity; 2) the innovative techniques employed to capture rich community level data; and 3) the challenges of developing common indicators of progress, collecting data in very diverse community settings and providing on-going, formative feedback to the 39 partnerships and to the funders of the Initiative.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant (learner) will be able to

• describe three reasons for choosing a multi-level evaluation design to assess a complex, statewide community-based public health initiative;
• identify three techniques for capturing community-level data;
• articulate three lessons learned in providing on-going, formative feedback to multiple stakeholders.

Keywords: Evaluation, Participatory Research

Related Web page: www.partnershipPH.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: The Partnership for the Public's Health The Public Health Institute The California Endowment Group Health Community Foundation Center for Community Health and Evaluation
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Group Health Community Foundation -Employer paid Group Health Community Foundation is a paid contractor for the Public Health Institute