Challenges and successes in using a web-based survey for community data collection for CSAPs SPF SIG grantees

This poster session will showcase the successes and challenges associated with using a web-based survey to collect data from community grantees participating in CSAP's Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG) initiative. The SPF is a framework that communities must follow to address substance abuse prevention and includes five distinct components: needs assessment, capacity building, strategic plan development, intervention implementation and evaluation.

As part of the cross-site evaluation, we developed a web-based survey to evaluate the communities' progress through the SPF process. State grantees, community grantees and other technical experts, as well as members of the cross-site evaluation team provided input into the development of the survey. The survey includes a mix of close-ended responses that result in quantitative data, as well as open-ended responses that are coded using a qualitative analysis program.

Successes associated with the survey include being able to adequately track process measures, systems factors, contextual issues, and outcome measures associated with specific interventions. In addition, the web-based survey enables states to quickly access the data for their own evaluations.

Challenges include keeping respondent burden at a minimum, while still collecting the relevant data. One of the major challenges was designing the survey to maximize user friendliness, including automating skip patterns and providing detailed error messages when a data entry mistake is made. In addition, providing training and technical assistance on the web-survey proved to be resource intensive.