Researchers at Live & Learn, Inc. are exploring the needs and preferences of community-based organizations that want to use data to improve and sustain their programs. What we learn will help us to develop tools to support community-based organizations to conduct program evaluation.
During this six-month project, Live & Learn, Inc. and partners will determine the scientific merit and technical feasibility of Elevate, Evaluate, an affordable, online capacity-building platform to provide evaluation technical assistance for small community-based organizations (CBOs). The goal of this project is to improve community living and participation by developing critical infrastructure tools for evaluation research that can be used to improve services and supports for, and outcomes of, people with psychiatric disabilities.
This platform will support CBOs in developing the competencies, systems, and capabilities to conduct a program self-evaluation. Providing these programs with tools and methods that support high-quality program evaluation activities will result in new knowledge, services, and products that better address the needs of individuals with psychiatric disabilities.
Phase I will result in a comprehensive Engineering Development Plan and a low-fidelity computer-based prototype of the platform. During Phase II, we will build on the content and procedures developed in Phase I to create the full-featured website and evaluate its performance with CBOs. The outcome of the final Phase II product will be measurable, positive changes in the capacity of behavioral health CBOs to monitor the quality of their services. The Phase II product will complement existing resources and be scalable to county and state behavioral health departments.
The objectives are:
Determine user needs, demands, competencies, and preferences;
Develop a content architecture strategy;
Design a computer-based prototype for development in Phase II
Elevate, Evaluate is based on our Guidebook for Peer Support Program Self-Evaluation: Practical Steps and Tools.
This project was supported in part by grant number 90BISA0060, from the U.S. Administration for Community Living, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C. 20201.