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Challenges with Government Evaluation Requirements for Evaluators of Indigenous Substance Abuse Prevention Programs
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| Presenter(s):
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| Jane Grover,
RMC Research Corporation,
jgrover@rmccorp.com
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| Abstract:
How can indigenous evaluators implement culturally competent models in AI/AN communities while ensuring that government evaluation requirements are met? Through describing the challenges in one tribal community with state funding, this paper will discuss how American Indian/Alaska Native substance abuse prevention programs are evaluating the implementation and outcomes of Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF). Examples will also be drawn from the work of tribal entities recently funded under the same requirements as states. The SPF is the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s (CSAP) model for implementing community changes in attitudes, policies, and practices related to substance abuse. Based on the work of community coalitions, the SPF draws upon some of the strengths of indigenous communities. But requirements for epidemiological data are challenging to tribal and urban Indian grantees because these data are often not available or seriously under represent AI/AN populations. Requirements for implementing evidence-based programs formed on other populations, and for evaluation data based on quantitative methods add to the challenge. Throughout the process, much is being learned that will hopefully strengthen AI/AN grantees and increase the cultural competence of government evaluation requirements.
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Going Native: An Evolution of Evaluation Policy and Practice Toward Indigenous Methods
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| Presenter(s):
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| Katherine Tibbetts,
Kamehameha Schools,
katibbet@ksbe.edu
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| Abstract:
As a novice program evaluator in the early 1980’s, the author was cautioned by her mentor about the pitfalls of “going Native” (becoming too close to the program and staff). At that time, most evaluators operated within the paradigm that an objective Truth would be revealed through the scientific method, assuming the evaluator kept sufficient distance between herself and the object of study. However, based on a review of changes in evaluation standards over the last three decades, position statements from the American Evaluation Association, changes in TIG options within AEA, writings on evaluation theory from an indigenous perspective, and personal experience, the paper reaches the conclusion that “going native” in ways described in the draft AEA Cultural Competency Statement is essential to high quality evaluation. It further draws connections between this position and indigenous approaches to program evaluation as documented in the evaluation literature.
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Cultural Competence Methodology
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| Presenter(s):
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| Holly Echo Hawk,
Walter R McDonald & Associates Inc,
echohawk@pacifier.com
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| Carolyn Lichtenstein,
Walter R McDonald & Associates Inc,
clichtenstein@wrma.com
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| Abstract:
The federal government has funded child and family system of care transformation beginning with the Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP) initiative in 1984, which later transformed into the federal Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program. Funded communities are required to participate in a national evaluation study. American Indian and Alaska Native communities have been an important part of the children's mental health transformation movement and have made significant contributions to the practice level interpretation of cultural competence and program evaluation. Tribal communities were an important segment of the funded communities and cultural disconnects were common during the funding partnership. Much learning occurred between both the national evaluation entity and the local tribal communities about cultural competence methodology. The workshop will provide details of how the study methodology adhered to cultural competence principles and resulted in a Tribal partnership that advanced the mutual agendas.
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