A mixed methods approach for evaluating the implementation of a Housing First intervention for the Canadian At Home/Chez Soi Demonstration Project

Introduction: There is a growing recognition of the importance of understanding program implementation and identifying the essential ingredients that account for a program's success. This presentation describes a mixed methods approach to the evaluation of implementation of a Housing First intervention across five Canadian cities. Objective: a) To verify that program operations are consistent with the HF model; b) to identify the strengths and weaknesses of implementation (formative evaluation), and e) to ascertain the ongoing processes of adaptation of the programs to changes in the larger community environment (developmental evaluation). Methods: A mixed methods approach to evaluation was utilized (Morris & Niehaus, 2009). Fidelity assessments were conducted by external evaluators during two-day visits to each of each program site. The fidelity assessments included focus group interviews with program participants, staff members and an examination of program documents and participants' charts. This data was summarized to arrive at quantitative scores of fidelity for each program at the five sites. At the same time, qualitative site researchers conducted individual and focus group interviews with a variety of stakeholders at the sites regarding the logic model, formative, and developmental issues. Findings: While the quantitative results will show the level of fidelity of implementation for each program at each site, the qualitative data proved to enhance the understanding of the fidelity scores through open-ended interview data that uncover factors that influence the fidelity of implementation. Discussion: The discussion will situate the findings in the context of previous implementation evaluations of the Housing First program.