The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Jenny McNeill, MPH, Policy Division, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025, 650-859-5357, jenny.mcneill@sri.com
To understand how the collective work of First 5 California may improve child and family outcomes, it is necessary to collect the same information about children and families being served across a variety of programs. This information allows us to determine how outcomes improve across the integrated systems of care, thereby promoting systems change efforts in addition to program refinement. SRI International and its partners developed a Web-based data management system (PEDS) to be used statewide for common data collection.
An early step in designing the statewide evaluation was to select a set of indicators to be used as outcome measures for First 5 California, through a collaborative decision-making process that included the State and County Commissions. Commissions were given an Indicator Background book and asked to complete a survey to rate proposed indicators on importance, local use, and feasibility. The final list of indicators guided development of the Web-based data management system, data collection tools, and identification of data sources to track progress on child and family outcomes, program performance, and structural factors that may influence success in achieving desired results.
This paper discusses: (1) the Web-based data management system used to collect common, reliable, high-quality data for First 5 California; (2) the collaborative process used to determine indicators to be tracked statewide; and (3) the data collected statewide that convey information about children, families, programs, and communities being affected by First 5 California.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Evaluation, Infrastructure
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: First 5 California State Commission
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: consultant