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Issue 29: October 2009 Client Update: Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties Denise Stahura joined Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties last spring as Senior Director of Planning. She is responsible for oversight of grant writing, programming planning & evaluation, communications and long range planning. She also directs Community Action's community needs assessment and provides guidance to agency staff in using the data for program development. Leah Goldstein Moses and Liz Radel Freeman had the chance to work with her closely on a needs assessment that wrapped up in June, 2009. We recently caught up with Denise to hear how she has been using the work.
Gaining a clearer understanding of the breadth of what Community Action Partnership of Ramsey & Washington Counties does in the community. Many people will recognize the name of the services we deliver such as Head Start or Energy Assistance. They may not realize that these are part of our locally-governed Community Action Agency. It’s also critical that I get to know all the partners with whom Community Action works. We work with city, county, state and federal legislators, other nonprofit partners and coalitions – all with the goal of reducing poverty and removing obstacles to self-sufficiency in Ramsey & Washington counties.
Knowing that I’m really making a difference in people’s lives is what I value most. Our Head Start kids get a better start in life, our matched savings program participants save for houses and education, and people will be warmer this winter because of our energy weatherization work on homes. I know that people are truly better off because of what Community Action does.
We’re using that data to develop a strategic plan that anticipates what community needs will be for the next five years. It will help determine what services we offer and where the greatest effort is required.
We’ve been educating our board of directors, our community partners and community leaders. In addition to direct service to individuals, Community Action joins with other partners to make change at the systemic level and to give those we work with a voice in the legislative process. In doing this, we need to know what’s happening, what the trends are, what best practices are and get that information out to others. And the needs assessment has been helping us with that effort as well.
We received $12 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment funds for house weatherization. That means in one year, we’ll be able to triple the number of homes we can weatherize to 1726 by September 2010! We’ve been in this business for 30 years and have a strong emphasis on conservation and green techniques. We’re weatherizing both homes and rental properties so that people who don’t own a home will benefit from the work as well. On average, a weatherized home will save 20-25% on energy costs per heating season. We also offer financial literacy classes. Those skills are critical to helping people become independent. Knowing how to budget, how to balance a checkbook, how to manage to save – these are important skills for everyone, especially low-wage earners and new Americans who are working to make a better life for their families.
Seeing the new strategic plan put into play, seeing how many jobs we will create with the dollars given to Community Action, creating a new website showcasing the ways we help people become self-sufficient, and working at the systemic level to eliminate poverty – there’s a lot to do! To learn more about Community Action Partnership of Ramsey and Washington Counties, go to http://www.caprw.org/. To learn more about needs assessment and how it can help your organization, contact Leah Goldstein Moses at leah@theimprovegroup.com. . |
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The Improve Group will have another strong presence at the American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference this November. This annual conference gathers those involved in the field of evaluation; attendees come from all over the United States and from all over the world. They represent academia, private contractors, public organizations and non-profits. Learning from peers is always a focus of the conference and the Improve Group attendees will be both presenting and learning. This year’s conference is being held in Orlando, Florida. Yes, yes it is a warm and sunny destination in a cold Minnesota fall, but there is no correlation between sun and the number of Improve Group attendees. Really, we tested it very rigorously. The Improve Group’s fearless leader, Leah Goldstein Moses, will be sharing strategies for building a lasting evaluation business, reflecting on her 10 years of experience in building the Improve Group. Leah will also be chairing another session on internal v. external evaluation approaches (described more below) and participating, with Susan Murphy, in a roundtable about the use of blogs in evaluation. The Improve Group will also be joining two former clients on panels. Marian Kimball Eichinger and Becky Stewart will join Grant Duwe, Minnesota Department of Corrections Research and Evaluation Manager in a discussion about evaluating release programs in corrections. Marian managed a project while with the Improve Group that evaluated a pre-release program in Minnesota correctional facilities. Becky Stewart managed another project evaluating a release initiative that supported a group of men who have statistically high rates of recidivism. With Dr. Duwe, this panel explores issues of timing in evaluating a release program. While everyone involved, especially funders and managers, want to know quickly whether or not a release program is working, conclusive data may not be available for years. In addition, pilot programs are opportunities for innovation and improvement, but these programs may well be working through implementation issues and continuing to explore new strategies while facing expectations for immediate strong performance as offenders are released. Finally, many in the corrections field will agree that a successful re-entry starts while an offender is still incarcerated, but desired “outcomes” for an evaluation will look quite different for pre- versus post-release programs. While many of these issues may be corrections-specific, the panel will explore common evaluation challenges such as: balancing process/implementation evaluation questions with outcome evaluation questions; accessing vital private data; meeting the needs of different stakeholder groups; honoring the uniqueness of a program while reporting on standard outcome measures; and defining interim measures of success. Becky Stewart will also be joining Dr. Chi-Keung (Alex) Chan, Evaluation, Testing, and Accountability Specialist with Minneapolis Public Schools Research, Evaluation and Assessment Department on a panel about the perspectives of internal and external evaluators. The Minneapolis Public Schools are a partner in the Kids Collaborative, along with Lutheran Social Service, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and the City of Minneapolis; the partners hired the Improve Group in 2007 to evaluate their It’s All About the Kids program. The program provides housing, case management and other support for the families of homeless/highly mobile students in Minneapolis Public Schools. Becky has managed this evaluation for two years for the Improve Group as an external evaluator. The evaluation design includes pre- and post-intervention measures and a mixed-method design. Because of the involvement of the partners, the Improve Group has access to summary data for participants from Minneapolis Public Schools and Minneapolis Public Housing. The Improve Group was also able to build qualitative data gathering into the evaluation design and the resulting interviews have been important to gaining more understanding about quantitative data and program impact. An internal evaluator from Minneapolis Public Schools may have less opportunity to look at a single program and its participants in such depth, but Dr. Chan has expertise in academic testing data and broad access to individual-level data about students. Becky works on this program evaluation with Dr. Chan, from the Minneapolis Public Schools, and the idea for a presentation came from their discussions about evaluation approaches. The panelists will discuss the benefits and challenges from each of their perspectives. The Improve Group always enjoys the opportunities to share what we are learning with colleagues at the AEA annual conference; we also bring back new ideas to share with our clients and improve upon our work here. |
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Upcoming Grants & Requests for Proposals You hear the word innovation used a lot these days. Programs and agencies are challenged to be innovative and collaborative in their response to the issues we face today. But, innovation takes people, time and funding. The grants and RFPs below represent funders who are trying to foster innovative solutions and encourage the groups that are seeking new solutions. The Kresge Foundation The Kresge Foundation is offering a new opportunity called the Safety-Net Enhancement Initiative which is seeking innovative models of health care delivery in the United States among local and regional providers. Fifteen planning grant awards of up to $75,000 will be made. Seven to 10 of the planning grant recipients will then be competitively selected to receive a second grant of up to $750,000 each for a three-year period. For details,click here The General Mills Foundation In partnership with the American Dietetic Foundation and the President’s Council of Physical Fitness, the General Mills Foundation developed the Champions for Healthy Kids Grant program. General Mills awards 50 grants of $10,000 each to community groups developing creative ways to help youth adopt a balanced diet and a physically active lifestyle. Online applications are due by January 15, 2010. Click here to learn more. ERSI and Trimble ESRI and Trimble are looking for best practices demonstration projects by state and local governments using GIS, GPS, mobile, and server technology to solve government problems. Through their new 2009 Mobile Government Grant Program twenty U.S. government agencies will receive packages of hardware, software, and training valued at $89,980 each. Deadline to apply is November 20, 2009. More information can be found here. |
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Sharing and Learning - AEA Evaluation 2009 Conference