| Session Title: Tying it Together: Developing a Web-based Data Collection System for a Multi-site Tobacco Initiative |
| Demonstration Session 717 to be held in D'Alesandro Room on Saturday, November 10, 9:35 AM to 10:20 AM |
| Sponsored by the Non-profit and Foundations Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| Stephanie Herbers, Saint Louis University, herberss@slu.edu |
| Nancy Mueller, Saint Louis University, mueller@slu.edu |
| Abstract: In 2004, a Missouri health foundation committed significant funding to establish a nine-year, comprehensive, multi-site initiative to reduce tobacco use in Missouri. Projects funded through the initiative share common goals, but vary in design, structure, and implementation. This can pose challenges when evaluating progress, including capturing data on the overarching goals; detecting broad, cross-site effects; and ensuring valid results. As the initiative evaluators, we will demonstrate the process we took to identify a minimum data set to be collected from each of the funded projects. We will also describe the development of a web-based data collection system that provides a centralized location for submission and access to the minimum data set by grantees, the evaluator, and the foundation. In addition, we will demonstrate the system and discuss lessons learned in creating a flexible and user-friendly data collection and management tool that can be used by multiple stakeholders. |