A framework for evaluating comprehensive community initiatives

This article describes a model and design for evaluating a comprehensive community health promotion initiative. The theoretically based model was designed by the authors to evaluate a countywide initiative based on developmental assets, a framework for healthy youth development promoted by the Search Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The model includes the components of a typical logic model and incorporates concepts proposed by diffusion of innovations, social cognitive theory, and Search Institute's conceptual model for community change. The model highlights the priorities of local stakeholders and directs evaluation activities in multiple community sectors over time. The evaluation design is presented according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention framework for program evaluation in public health.