The Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) uses grants to local communities to reduce the burdens of chronic diseases associated with tobacco use and obesity through policy, system and environmental (PSE) changes. Each community collaborates with schools, worksites, service providers and health care organizations.
May 7, 2014 - 9:04am
April 25, 2014 - 3:32pm
The Improve Group values what has become a long-term relationship working with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) for the Home and Community Based-Services (HCBS) Waiver Review Initiative.
April 16, 2014 - 2:24pm
Recently, I attended a focus group training facilitated by Dr. Richard Krueger and Dr. Mary Anne Casey of the U of MN School of Public Health.
February 11, 2014 - 2:56pm
In 2013, the Improve Group conducted focus groups as part of many projects. Two of these projects include: the Minnesota DHS Community Services Input project and the Region 4 Mental Health Services Needs Assessment.
December 16, 2013 - 3:12pm
You can draw stronger conclusions from your survey data when you have a high response rate. Incentives can increase the likelihood that people participate, and acknowledges that their time is valuable to the research. Traditionally, these incentives come in the form of gift cards, food, money, etc. A newer trend in incentives is to “pay it forward” through a gift in kind.
November 11, 2013 - 3:02pm
Hello! We are Stacy Johnson and Cami Connell from the Improve Group. At Evaluation 2013, we had the opportunity to present on our experiences using a unique mixed methods approach to collecting data.
October 22, 2013 - 3:17pm
This morning, National Public Radio featured a piece on the upcoming results aspect of Charity Navigator’s rating system.
September 4, 2013 - 2:18pm
Depending on what you want to accomplish through evaluation, some approaches may require a big investment of time or money.
August 20, 2013 - 10:05am
Using surveys, whether on the general public or a targeted population of interest, can be an effective and fruitful way to gather information. However, there may be, at times, reasons to question whether your survey participants are being honest with their results.
August 15, 2013 - 10:24am
Pre- and post-tests collect and compare individuals’ responses before and after an intervention. You must have a method of identifying the participant so that you can measure the change from the first survey to the second. One potential way to both maintain confidentiality and link surveys from pre- to post is to anonymously generate ID codes for the participants. However, they need to be codes that can be easily recovered if needed and are unlikely to be duplicated across multiple respondents. This topic recently came up on an evaluation listserv.