Using evaluability assessment and evaluation capacity-building to strengthen community-based prevention initiatives

To examine the process of community-campus engagement in an initiative developed to build evaluation capacities of community-based organizations (CBOs).

Evaluability assessment, capacity-building, self administered surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted from 2004 to 2007 and analyzed through transcript assessment and SPSS to identify trends, relationships and capacity changes over time.

Evaluability assessment identified CBO strengths in program planning and implementation and challenges in measurable objective development, systematic use of mixed methods, data management and analysis. Evaluability assessment informed evaluation capacity-building (ECB) trainings, teleconferences and webinars that resulted in statistically significant improvements in evaluation knowledge, skills, and abilities. Post-initiative interviews indicated CBO preferences for face-to-face training in logic model development, mixed method data collection and analysis.

This report illustrates the use of mixed methods to plan, implement and evaluate a model to catalyze CBOs systematic assessment of prevention initiatives and considerations in evaluation capacity-building.