The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #69368

Stacie S. Cherner, MA, MSW and Kathleen M. Hebbeler, PhD. Center for Education and Human Services, SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025, 650-859-5318, stacie.cherner@sri.com

Beginning in 1994, Sierra Health Foundation awarded grants of about $50,000 per year to rural and urban communities in northern California to participate in a long-term community-building process. Communities established or strengthened a collaborative to guide the effort. The ideal collaborative has shared leadership, has a community-driven decision-making process, and is inclusive with local residents playing key roles. Each collaborative conducted a community assessment, and used the results to develop a collective vision and identify one or more key issues for the focus of their work. Additional input was gathered from the community to specify intended outcomes, and develop strategies and action plans to address the issues identified. Collaboratives emphasized prevention in their action plans and focused more on policy work over the years, based on the assumption that changing policy and systems will ultimately have the greatest impacts on health outcomes. Sierra Health Foundation contracted with SRI International to conduct an evaluation of the CPHC initiative. The evaluation of CPHC examines the process of forming or expanding a collaborative and designing and implementing an action plan, as well as the outcomes achieved in each of the communities and by the initiative overall. This presentation will detail the successful community-building accomplishments and discuss the methodological challenges to evaluating a community building initiative.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the participant will be able to
• describe the theory of change developed for this children's health initiative,
• understand how each component was evaluated,
• identify benefits and challenges associated with evaluating each piece of the theory of change.

Keywords: Children's Health, Community Building

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Sierra Health Foundation
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: The evaluation of this initiative is funded by the Sierra Health Foundation