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

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

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusion: 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.