Recorded presentation

Clarissa Hsu, PhD¹, Pamela M. Schwartz, MPH², Rhonda Sarnoff, DrPH, MSPH³, and David Pearson, PhD¹. (1) 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, (2) Center for Community Health and Evaluation, Kaiser Foundation Research Institute, One Kaiser Plaza, 22nd Floor, Oakland, CA 94612, (3) Partnership for the Public's Health, California Public Health Institute, 505 14th St., Oakland, CA 94612

Evaluators have long been faced with the challenge of serving stakeholders with diverse perspectives. Addressing the needs of multiple stakeholders has proved central to the evaluation work done for the Partnership for the Public’s Health (PPH) Initiative. The PPH Initiative is an innovative project designed to put theories regarding community-based public health into action by partnering 14 health departments with 39 community groups across the state of California. The approach used by the PPH Initiative encourages each of the 39 partnerships to develop community driven goals and strategies designed to lead toward health improvement in their community. Mid-way through the PPH Initiative, the evaluation was charged with finding a standardized method for measuring the progress of each of the 39 partnerships. Several factors made this task particularly challenging, including; 1) the commitment to using a participatory evaluation approach, 2) the variability across the 39 sites with respect health improvement goals and strategies for achieving these goals, and 3) the diversity of stakeholder evaluation skills and willingness to engage in the evaluation efforts.

This presentation will describe the challenges and lessons learned when attempting to provide cross-site data that is accurate, standardized and true to tenets of participatory evaluation. Specific issues that will be addressed are: 1) the considerations that went into the initial design for the measure of progress, 2) methods used to solicit feedback and redesign the process, and 3) unresolved concerns and questions related to standardizing measures of progress.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation the participants will be able to

• Describe why there is a need for measures of progress and what the key design issues are when developing measures of progress.
• Identify 2-4 factors that affect the ability of evaluators to provide accurate, standardized measures of progress using a participatory evaluation model.
• Describe the challenges and lessons learned in designing a cross-site measure of progress in the PPH Initiative.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Paid through an evaluation contract with the Partnership for the Public's Health Initiative

Recorded presentation