Project Details
- Principal Investigator: Daniel Kruger, PhD, UM SPH (kruger@umich.edu)
- Project Dates: 2005-2006
- Funding: Michigan Department of Community Health
Description
The Prevention Research Center of Michigan provided technical assistance and support for internal evaluations of organizations participating in the Michigan Department of Community Health’s (MDCH) Health Disparity Reduction Program. PRC-MI staff worked with participating organizations to construct systematic means of evaluation and measures of program success, so each organization was able to compare their strategies with those of other communities and identify best practices for addressing particular goals. PRC-MI staff held a workshop for participating organizations, to develop logic models connecting program outputs to anticipated outcomes, and to facilitate the identification of best practices. PRC-MI staff interviewed intervention program staff and created a rich description of the activities in each program. This documentation was made available to all participating organizations. PRC-MI researchers worked with MDCH program staff to develop a cross-site evaluation tool to complement the internal evaluations of the projects. The tool contains four sections based on priorities identified by MDCH: evidence-based practice, research-based learning/evaluation (including process, impact, and outcomes indicators), cultural competence, and sustainability. Recognizing the diversity of programmatic efforts and organizational evaluation capacity, the authors sought to enable each project to create the best evaluation possible given the resources and data available. Each section contains a range of components from basic questions to more advanced evaluation techniques. The instrument attempts to use the highest quality of information available for each project. This evaluation tool can be used by programs with diverse goals and methodology.
