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Session Title: Building Community Collaborative and Evaluator Evaluation Capacity to Measure Community and Systems Change
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Panel Session 570 to be held in Coronado on Friday, Nov 4, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM
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Sponsored by the AEA Conference Committee
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| Chair(s): |
| Evelyn Yang, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, eyang@cadca.org
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| Abstract:
Evaluation of community collaborative efforts is evolving. Previously, evaluation primarily focused on process (e.g., membership satisfaction and collaborative functioning) and distal outcomes (e.g., behavior change). However, there is a growing understanding of the process by which coalitions contribute to distal outcomes that now includes creating systems/community changes. Many collaboratives are struggling to measure systems/community changes related to long-term health outcomes and answer the ultimate question of what value the collaborative provides to address community concerns. While this approach potentially has great value, both collaboratives and evaluators lack tools, resources and knowledge to incorporate this additional level of data and tracking to their existing evaluation efforts. This session will provide three examples of efforts to build both collaborative and evaluator capacity to measure and evaluate community/systems change initiatives. National and local evaluation perspectives will be presented, and there will be time for discussion on challenges and potential solutions to these obstacles.
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National Efforts to Build Coalition and Evaluator Capacity to Track Community and Systems Change
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| Evelyn Yang, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, eyang@cadca.org
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This presentation will describe how Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and its National Coalition Institute (Institute) trains and supports both coalitions and coalition evaluators in comprehensive community coalition efforts. CADCA's Institute provides training and technical assistance to coalitions across America to improve their effectiveness at reducing substance abuse rates within their community. This presentation will describe efforts to build capacity to track community/systems changes among evaluators and coalitions. The Institute will discuss the theoretical framework of the training they use to build coalitions as community/systems change agents and a new initiative to create a community of practice to support coalition evaluators in their efforts to measure these important intermediate outcomes as part of a quality coalition evaluation. The intent of this presentation is to show how building both evaluator and coalition capacity is necessary to accurately understand the conditions under which coalitions can change distal, public health problems.
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Tools and Technology to Help Communities Track Community and Systems Change
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| Paul Evensen, Community Systems Group Inc, pevensen@communitysystemsgroup.com
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This presentation will focus on the lessons learned by Community Systems Group (CSG), an evaluation consulting organization that works with a variety of community health collaboratives across the country. CSG uses a research-based evaluation model that emphasizes the importance of tracking intermediate outcomes of coalition efforts, including community and systems changes. The presenter will describe how tools and technology can be used to support local collaborative evaluation efforts. These include forms, diagnostic tools and also a local, customized, online database for all evaluation related data, including process, intermediate and distal outcome data so that communities can analyze their contribution to improved community health.
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Local Evaluation Consulting: What Does it Take to Change Evaluator and Community Collaborative Evaluation Practices
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| Ann Price, Community Evaluation Solutions Inc, aprice@communityevaluationsolutions.com
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Community collaboratives and the evaluators whom they hire face many challenges in evaluating comprehensive community change efforts. Evaluating community collaboratives is much broader and complex than single focused program evaluation. Evaluation of collaboratives entails tracking a wide variety of data (coalition process and long-term outcomes), using data for on-going decision making, and requires both qualitative and quantitative analysis skills. Furthermore, advising and managing the local evaluation while mindful of national funders goals are a challenge. The increasing pressure to track intermediate and long-term outcomes adds to the local evaluator's already full plate. Realistically, how do evaluators feasibly manage competing pressures within the limited budget available for local evaluations? This presentation will provide a local evaluation consultant's perspective on the challenges she has faced in incorporating evaluation best practices into her work and implications for how the growing emphasis on systems evaluation and tracking community changes has for her work.
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