It has been a very eye-opening time here at the Improve Group. The fragility of the human body and mind has become incredibly pertinent to us lately as we’ve been trying to support friends facing health issues. In our concern and support for people we care about in difficult health situations, we become more in tune with what matters most in life. It also brings into focus the important work being done by those who help us recover and cope with injury and illness.

The support offered through this next opportunity will promote partnerships between health and education that encourage much needed future careers in the medical health field.

This week’s pick: The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education, as part of their Health Careers Grant Program for 2008, is seeking applications from qualifying partnerships between school districts, health and/or long term care employers, and higher education. The aim of this grant program is “to assist consortia to develop intergenerational programs to encourage middle and high school students to work and volunteer in health care and long-term care settings.”

Check the grant application regarding specific eligibility requirements to qualify such as, partnerships must include at least one eligible health or long term care employer and an institution of higher education to apply with priority given to consortia that include a school district partner.

Grants of up to $40,000 are available. Due date for the application is November 30, 2007. For more information contact Lawrence Colaizy by email at Lawrence.Colaizy@health.state.mn.us.

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Yesterday night, I had the pleasure of attending the centennial celebration of the Minnesota Public Health Association. It was wonderful to catch up with many public health colleagues while we celebrated the organization’s first 100 years. Our keynote address was delivered by Will Steger on his travels in the Arctic and Antarctic. Mr. Steger has witnessed firsthand the effects global warming and reminded us of the enormity of this issue. It was interesting to see how similar strategies aimed to change behavior must be used to combat global warming and to address public health epidemics such as obesity. Attendees also had a chance to reflect on public health advances in the past hundred years, ranging from vaccinations to improved sanitation practices. The evening ended with an ode to MPHA led by Minnesota Public Health personality, Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Director of the University of Minnesota’s Boynton Health Services and host of the Metro Cable Channel 6 television program “A Public Health Journal.” Yesterday evening was a wonderful celebration of the work that public health professionals have done for Minnesota and a call to act on the challenges that lie ahead.

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SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration -- a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- has developed National Outcomes Measures for all of its grantees. They are laid out in a clear grid by domain, similar to what a logic model might look like if you tried to model all prevention and treatment programs in one document.

States and other grantees report on their success in these outcomes. The outcomes were developed primarily from SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). This annual survey collects data from members of U.S. households aged 12 or older. Some interesting national statistics show that that among persons aged 12 to 17 (2004-05):
* Seventeen percent reported using alcohol during the past 30 days; however, 78 percent perceived a great risk of harm from having five or more drinks of an alcoholic beverage once or twice a week.
* Seven percent reported using marijuana in the past 30 days; however, 83 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds perceived moderate or great risk of harm from smoking marijuana once a month.
* The average age of first use among 12- to 17-year-olds who reported using marijuana or alcohol was 13.6 and 13.1, respectively.
* Twenty-five percent of persons aged 15 to 17 who were employed would be more likely to work for an employer who randomly tests for drugs and alcohol.

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In our work for the Waiver Review Initiative, we have learned that many communities struggle with identifying good employment options for people with disabilities. In particular, they often have providers that are excellent at one aspect of employment (such as a facility that offers work training) but don't have many options they can offer other than those few providers.

A workshop at PACER center on Nov. 5 is designed for both families and professionals to identify creative roads to employment for youth with disabilities. More information can be found here. The concept of customizing opportunities for various individual needs is one that is permeating all of our work. One of the seven areas that we review is the community's "person-centered" approach to working with people; how much the services, supports and opportunities reflect the person's individual needs and wants.

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Over the past year we have worked with Girl Scouts USA to evaluate the Uniquely ME! program, a program designed in 2002 to address low self-esteem, which is increasingly recognized as a problem facing young girls.

In our evaluation, we are focusing on the key components of girls' ability to "Discover, Connect, Take Action". Using a retrospective pre-test/post test model, we learned that the program has helped girls to take risks and try new things, confidently find their talents and find ways to make their lives better.

This initiative has been funded in large part by the Dove Self-esteem Fund, which recently prepared a short video called Onslaught demonstrating why this work is so necessary.

On a personal note, the importance of this work was made startlingly relevant to me a week ago when my five-year-old daughter informed me that I could buy a cream that would make my skin look as beautiful as hers. Needless to say, I was a little taken aback by the statement and her preoccupation with physical appearance! The troops in our area don't start until age 6, but we'll be looking forward to some of the lessons available from Girl Scouts.

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I am always looking for ways that all of us can contribute to the school or charity of our choice. As a single mom I have limited resources and I am sure I am not alone. That doesn’t excuse me from trying to support the causes I care about. I was pleasantly surprised to find this free and painless way to help only a 'click' away.

This week’s pick: GoodSearch is a Yahoo search tool that allows you to raise small amounts of money for a school or charity you care about while surfing the web. The idea is that you designate the organization that you would like to see receive funds, and then search the web using the GoodSearch tool. When you search, a small portion of money from the search engine advertisers is earmarked for your charity designee.

The group you want to give to must be registered with Yahoo and this can easily be accomplished by clicking the "add a new charity" link.

This is no great amount of money, but a lot of web users can add up over time. A good way to start using this tool would be to announce it at the PTA or with the volunteers and supporters of your organization, have them mark your group to receive funding and then go surfing! There is even a link for easy ways to spread the word.

If you are an online shopper and click on one of the Yahoo partner services you will also be able to designate a charity through their GoodShop program. In both GoodSearch and GoodShop certain types of searched don’t count so read the information carefully.

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Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to co-present a session with Tom DeCaigny, Executive Director of Performing Arts Workshop at the annual conference of the International Network of Schools for the Advancement of Arts Education.

During our presentation, we talked about the lessons we have learned in developing and improving partnerships with arts education programming stakeholders. We have worked on federally funded program implementation and evaluation work together for five years, spanning two Department of Education grants. During this time we have learned valuable tips and techniques in forming partnerships with schools, principals, classroom teachers, teaching artists and school district administrators.

Towards the end of our presentation, Tom and I led a discussion about barriers to partnerships that we have experienced and that our audience of 25 or so attendees have experiened in their diverse work situations. These barriers included:
• Scheduling
• Lack of initial interest
• Competing demands (i.e. testing, etc.)
• Turnover (all levels)
• Lip service (aka false agreement)
• Lack of support and buy-in (admin.)
• Exhaustion – test scores, distant memories
• Teacher experience/partnership/mentorship
• Arts phobia – lack of arts experience

We also brainstormed solutions to these barriers. Our audience had very creative and useful ideas on overcoming barriers and methods to improve partnerships.
• Relationship building (principal buy-in)
• Principal training
• Hire based on connection to the arts (teachers and principals)
• Use teacher “hidden” arts skills
• Know sequence and need of curriculum
• Know curriculum themes re: integration
• Arts integration training/background
• Overcoming competition
• Building citizenship

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in our conference session!

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The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative (INQRI) supports teams of nursing and other staff who will research gaps in the knowledge about the relationships between nursing and patient care.

To be eligible you must be an interdisciplinary team with one scholar from nursing and another from a different discipline. Preference will be given to non-profits organizations.

The brief proposal deadline is December 12th and full proposals are due April 28, 2008. Two-year grants up to $300,000 will be announced in 2008. For more information see the Call for Proposals.

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My father smoked and I think that’s the reason I never did. I was the child who sat behind him in the car and the ashes that were flicked out his window always seemed to come back in mine and land all over me. Not fun. Gratefully, my father was strong enough to put down the cigarettes and quit many years ago. But quitting any habit like smoking is never easy so I want to share an RFP today that may help.

Today’s pick: The Prevention Minnesota program of Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Minnesota would like to fund one organization to elevate tobacco prevention in the Latino community. The Latino community was identified as one of the priority populations by BCBS due to factors such a preponderance of tobacco advertising aimed at them and a lower cancer survival rate compared to white populations.

The goal of this grant is to help a Minnesota-based organization become a leader in the prevention of smoking and promotion of health by increasing their capacity to engage in statewide prevention efforts targeted to Latino communities.

An Intent to Apply notice must be received by November 15th, 2007. Full proposals need to be postmarked by December 13, 2007. Non-profits, for-profits and partnerships are eligible to apply. Award maximum is $300,000 per year with a potential of up to two renewal years. For complete details see the Priority Populations Interventions: Latino Communities RFP #585.

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by guest writer Greg Ritter of The Ritter Group

As an organization moves into major gift fundraising a common problem is determining who belongs on the prospect list. We may think first about contacting the people with the most wealth. But writing a letter to Bill and Melinda Gates or to Warren Buffet will probably lead to disappointment. Organizations usually imagine a large gift "coming out of the blue," when it's most likely going to come from someone they already know.

In development practice ability is only one of the three ingredients that will most often result in a major gift. Linkage to our organization or to one like ours is just as important. Lack of linkage will most likely shoot down our letters to Bill, Melinda and Warren. These first two ingredients, ability and linkage, are almost givens in major gift fundraising.

Prospects either have the ability, or they don't. They are either linked to us, or they aren't.

When these two ingredients are both present, we can supply the third one, interest. By making a strong case for giving, we complete the recipe for a major gift.

Asking for Major Gifts is a workshop that will show how to spot prospects in your data base and how to use helpful resources as close as your public library, the web, and CD ROMs to spend the most time with prospects who can really make it happen.

Click here for more information on this course and for a registration form.

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A friend passed this opportunity along to me; what a great opportunity!

Long-Time Activists of Color Invited to Apply for Sabbatical Program. Deadline: December 15, 2007

The Alston/Bannerman Fellowship Program honors those who have devoted their lives to helping their communities organize for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice, and provides resources for these organizers to take sabbaticals for reflection and renewal. To qualify for an Alston/Bannerman Fellowship, applicants must be a person of color; have more than ten years of community organizing experience; be committed to continuing to work for social change; and live in the United States or its territories. Both full-time and volunteer activists are eligible to apply.

Fellows receive a $25,000 award to take sabbaticals of three months or more and are expected to stop their day-to-day work activities for at least three months and devote that time to activities that will best re-energize them for the work ahead. Past fellows have used the time and resources to travel, study, visit with other activists, read, relax, acquire new skills, explore new interests, spend time with their families, restore their health, plan, evaluate, and "just be still." Visit the program's website for complete program details.

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On a more personal note....

Like everyone we know, disappointment is something we at the Improve Group occasionally face. These disappointments can vary from wishing the results of an evaluation had more positive findings to wishing we were selected for a project.

Over the past few days I've been feeling disappointed about an interesting project that went to another evaluator (an aside: I think very highly of all my peers in the Twin Cities; that doesn't mean I don't have a competitive streak!) Today, driving home from a meeting and getting prepared for the days' tasks, I turned on Minnesota Public Radio and heard an interview with Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of Overcoming Life's Disappointments. The main message I got from the conversation was that everyone faces disappointment and that what disappointment teaches us is to learn, try things in a new or different way, and to feel proud that we can overcome obstacles. It was a great message to hear on a rainy, dismal day.

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Customized Google Maps for Multi-site projects

Google Maps is a staple in my arsenal of business tools. I use it for directions in the Twin Cities and out of town, looking up restaurants and stores near other locations and for discovering what buildings, parks and other places of interest look like in Street View. By far, the most useful application of Google Maps is in cross-site project planning.

I am leading the Improve Group evaluation of Performing Arts Workshop’s Artists-in-Schools program. It is implemented in five schools of the San Francisco Unified School District, with three comparison schools in the same area. Google Maps allows me to create a personal map that displays the locations of all participating schools, as well as the Performing Arts Workshop offices, the San Francisco airport, hotels, friends’ homes and other places I like to visit when in the San Francisco area.

By creating a Google account and saving my personal map, all address information for these project sites are stored for me. After creating my personal map, I can visualize the best routes to visit multiple sites in one day and easily create directions. I can use unique place marks for each type of site I am interested in. I can also see what restaurants, parks and shopping areas are near the places I will be on a site visit that I might want to check out.

To create and start using your own Google map:
1. Sign in to Google or create an account.

2. Go to the Maps page, and click on the tab My Maps. Here you will find a link to create a new map, as well as links to some popular maps that can be fun or interesting to look at.

3. Create a title for your map and click Save. Now you can start adding locations to your map. In the Search the Map text box, enter the address or business name of the place you are interested in and click Search Maps.

4. Choose Save to My Maps and select the map to which you want to add this location. Now you can edit the title and description of this location. I like to add the phone and fax numbers to the description for quick reference. You can also insert images and change the place mark to best suit your needs.

This example shows excellent use of coded place markers and site descriptions to visually study the U.S. Civil War.

In time for Halloween, this Google Map shows locations from Dracula, as well as other sites associated with the life of Bram Stoker.

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As much as I want to deny it, the weather has definitely turned into fall. On a cool and windy walk to my apartment I am given nature’s reminder that we are not all so fortunate to have a place to call home or to find warmth on a chilly Minnesota night. This prompted me to look for a funder who could be of some help to those serving the homeless in our state. I found a commitment to social change in an unusual place. I was pleased to see that, like the Improve Group, it is a woman-led organization.

This week’s pick: The Finnegans Community Fund. Co-Founder and company President, Jacquie Berglund calls her product “Possibly the most socially conscious beer in the world.” She makes this claim because 100% of the profits from the sale of Finnegan’s Irish Amber go to Minnesota nonprofits that work toward improving the lives of the homeless. Nonprofits with a mission of addressing barriers to self-sustainability for the homeless and working poor, men, women, children and families in our community may apply.

Grant amounts range from $500 to $2000. Go to the Finnegans website to fill in the application form. Applications are considered twice a year.

As a side note: for adults 21 years of age and over, Finnegans has a volunteer group called Finnegans Brigade that helps out at events which benefit their Community Fund. The organization also accepts cash donations.

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Earlier this month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced recipients of the 2007 Community Health Leaders award, honoring individuals who overcome daunting obstacles to improve health and health care in their communities.

Among the ten winners was Monte Fox, diabetes project manager, White Earth Tribal Health (White Earth, Minnesota). In describing the work for which he was honored, Community Health Leaders reports:

Fox has developed culturally-sensitive programs to promote healthier lifestyles, including a diabetes camp for adults and a summer survivor program for kids, as well as ... games focused on education and prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Fox successfully negotiated for a podiatry clinic that in the last four years has saved more than 20 limbs from amputation.

We have just begun working with the White Earth Tribal Courts on a truancy prevention initiative and have enjoyed starting to get to know several community members. Congratulations, Mr. Fox!

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Nathan Salzl interned with the Improve Group from Spring - Fall 2006. We loved his enthusiasm for evaluation--and his background in the arts helped us significantly in our work with several arts organizations. Here is an update from Nathan:

I am still enjoying every day at United Way 2-1-1. This fall we are in the trenches with accreditation, documenting and updating all of our processes and procedures to become a nationally accredited call center. It's very challenging to answer all of the hundreds of questions in such an organized way. The most exciting part of this process is working with our database programmers to design some new and innovative software that will allow us to collect the data we need, using fields integrated into the call center that assist the Information and Referral Specialist with the natural flow and progression of taking a call and meeting the callers needs. It's interesting to think of data collection from an operations perspective, rather than a survey sample. It's also really fun to work with the programmers and after months of discussion and planning see the products come to the computer screen. It's a real collaboration of skills and understanding. So there's never a dull day at United Way, and I hope to continue learning and growing here as long as I can!

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Commissioner Cal Ludeman (.pdf) recently announced six key priorities identified by the senior management team for the Minnesota Department of Human Services in the 2008-2009 biennium:

* Provide integrated services to at-risk adults without children who are struggling to meet their basic needs.
* Improve outcomes for the most at-risk children.
* Reduce disparities in service access and outcomes for racial and ethnic populations.
* Use the state’s participation in the health care market to improve health care quality, access, outcomes and affordability for all Minnesotans.
* Develop effective and accountable mental and chemical health systems.
* Improve home and community-based services for the elderly and people with disabilities by establishing and using performance measurements and standards.

This last priority is directly related to the waiver review project we are conducting in collaboration with DHS. For the project we are conducting a statewide review, county-by-county, of home and community based services. So far we have reviewed 27 counties with three more scheduled in the next couple of months. We've also pulled together some statewide findings; two presentations about these findings can be accessed here. 1. Person-centered planning; 2. Provider monitoring.

The internal DHS newsletter last Friday also featured the waiver review project, with our primary contact, Robert Meyer, talking about the project's goals:

“We believe this is a very valuable process,” said Robert Meyer, director of fiscal analysis and planning in the Continuing Care administration. “It not only enables us to meet requirements in order to continue federal funding of these programs, but it helps us and the counties identify problem areas and correct them. It also helps the state and counties identify strengths and build on them.”

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I recently read an article in the current edition of Education Week about the debate regarding language in the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act that would encourage experimenting with performance-based pay for teachers. While both the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) ardently oppose the proposed language, experimentation with performance-based pay is mounting across the nation as states and districts try to reform teacher compensation.

A main issue in designing performance-based pay in teacher compensation is how to evaluate teachers. Currently, performance-based pay schedules are at least partly based on test scores because they are a quantitative measure for student achievement. This is in contrast with the traditional teacher pay schedule, where teachers are paid based on uniform pay steps that reward years of experience and education coursework completed.

The article states that during the 1980s, the main concerns about performance-based pay schedules relate to evaluating teachers based on criteria that were too subjective and that the limited scope of these compensation programs promote unhealthy competition between teachers. Education policymakers and administrators are trying to avoid the same problems in designing current performance-based pay schedules.

Research on the success of performance-based pay schedules is scarce. The article states that a 2007 research synthesis by the federally financed Consortium for Policy Research in Education found the impact of performance-based pay on student achievement is limited. While recent studies have generally found a positive relationship between financial incentives for teachers and student achievement, there is no consensus on how to design performance-based pay schedules.

In my experience researching education policy, when it comes to evaluating teacher effectiveness, current evaluation methods and the collection of quantitative data can provide a higher quality estimate of teacher effectiveness than the data and evaluation methods used when many performance-based pay schedules failed in the 1980s. For example, the article maintains that states and districts have developed data systems that estimate teachers’ effectiveness based on their students’ test-score gains over time. Such use of value-added measures does have its shortcomings, but combining these measures with qualitative measures such as improvement in student behavior and student satisfaction can possibly provide a more holistic assessment of teacher performance.

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The Improve Group recently did a presentation at a leadership conference for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. As I fielded questions on how to use different forms of media to engage constituencies, I realized how varied the knowledge is on what marketing tools are available for nonprofits with a tight budget.

Many nonprofit organizations invest precious time and money perfecting their website to tell their message in a clear and compelling manner. The step that is sometimes missed is how to drive traffic to that website and generate donors, volunteers, goods or whatever is needed to support their mission. Today I am highlighting an opportunity that can help nonprofits get their name out there and get their website noticed.

This week’s pick: The Google Grants program which helps nonprofits by providing free Google AdWords (in-kind, keyword advertising) for at least 3 months with a cap of $10,000 per month. AdWords posts an ad for your non-profit in the Sponsored Links section on Google.com search engine pages. The ad would link directly to your website.

Google's website offers helpful topics explaining how to make your ad campaign effective. For instance, you can create a group of campaigns that are targeted to different geographic locations or languages. They also provide of summary of the ad’s performance and of the keywords people used that brought them to you.

Charitable organizations throughout the U.S. are eligible to apply along with nonprofits in selected foreign countries. A simple application form for this in-kind grant can be found online.

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