Are you still there? Evaluating a CBPR project’s effort at capacity building

Lori M. Nascimento, MPH and LaVonna B. Lewis, Ph.D., MPHUniversity of Southern California, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Community Health

Part of the REACH 2010 – African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Coalition, Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Background AABLH purpose and focus Project timeline: 1999 – 2004 REACH 2010 overarching aims Three strategic directions

Education and prevention Economic parity and resource development Policy change

Background (continued) Goal: capacity building

Providing resources and training Involvement with development and

implementation of project Assisting with sustainability Improving skills

Purpose of Capacity Building Study Identify coalition members and organizations Understand level and type of participation Recognize influence of project on

organizational structure and policies Provide useful information to project

regarding outreach and program suggestions

Content of presentation METHODS FINDINGS

Demographics Participation with AABLH Organizational change Outreach

CONCLUSIONS

Methods Administered telephone survey with unique

instrument Sample derived from AABLH database

All event attendees from inception – 12/2002 Organizations (N=81) and individuals (N=138)

located in target areas Data collection took place from July – October

2003 43% response rate among organizations

Methods – Survey Instrument Design to capture individual and

organizational level data 40 main questions with many sub-questions Sections included: level and type of

participation, change after involvement with project, effectiveness of project, relationship to project, outreach and organizational characteristics

Findings – Demographics of organizational respondents 80% African American High level of education Middle to High income Organizational focus: health, education,

community/family Organizations are small, with target population

similar to that of AABLH project 23% of those surveyed reported having a formal

agreement with AABLH

Findings – Participation in EventsPercentage of respondents who attended the

following AABLH events:

26%29%

49%

31% 31%17%

31%40% 37%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

n=35

Findings – Level of ParticipationHave you conducted any lecture, presentation, or

seminars for any AABLH event?

No80%

Yes20%

Have you attended any of AABLH sponsored trainings or seminars?

No71%

Yes29%

Findings – Level of ParticipationHave you been involved in any of the following

advisory groups for AABLH?

20% 17%11% 9% 9%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Education &Prevention

Steering Policy EconomicParity

Consortium

n=35

Findings – Level of Participation Type of participation in the advisory groups

was largely “attendance only”, followed by some who reported being the “organizational representative”

No respondents reported to have “led sessions”, “conducted surveys”, or provided “administrative support”

Findings – Organizational ChangeHow has your involvement with AABLH helped/deterred your organization in

accomplishing its goals and objectives?

No Effect 26%

Helped 74%

n=35

Findings – Organizational Change Most responses cite “received information or

education” as how AABLH helped their organization

Other responses included “networking”, “awareness”, and [provided] “resources”

These responses were similar to those found when asking about helping the respondent’s personal goals and objectives

Findings – Organizational ChangeHave you seen any changes in your organization

since your involvement with AABLH?

Yes43%

No49%

Don't know8%

n=35

Findings – Organizational ChangeChange in organization's knowledge after

involvement with AABLH

18%15% 18%3% 3%

44%50%

41%

0%20%40%60%80%

100%

HeartDisease

Diabetes Healthy Food FormalPresentat.

Reported level of "expert"

Before

After

Findings - Outreach Overall, respondents reported that AABLH was

doing a good job in seeking out community residents Most respondents also reported that AABLH is

doing a good job of seeking out community organizations as partners

Among organizational respondents, the average number of AABLH participants per organization ranges from 1-50 with an average of 10

Findings - OutreachEffectiveness of AABLH to provide health

information in your community

Somew hat effective

31%

Very effective49%

Not at all effective

6%

Don't know14%

n=35

Findings - OutreachEffectiveness of AABLH in exchanging health

information between community based organizations

Very effective48%

Somewhat effective

26%

Not at all effective

6%

Don't know20%

n=35

Findings - OutreachWhat is the most effective outreach methods your

organization has used?

15

4

1

13

78

4 3

0

5

10

15

20

n=35

Conclusion Useful, but not perfect tool Small sample size gives us mostly qualitative

findings Overall results were positive, but keep non-

respondents in mind (outreach issues) Part of a larger effort at capacity building and

evaluation

Acknowledgements Survey respondents in Los Angeles,

Inglewood and North Long Beach Community Health Councils, AABLH University of Southern California

Students Faculty

Contact Information Capacity Building Evaluation Study

LaVonna B. Lewis: llewis@usc.edu Lori M. Nascimento: lorimill@usc.edu

African Americans Building a Legacy of Health Project Mia Boykin: mia@chc-inc.org

CDC - REACH 2010 http://www.cdc.gov/reach2010/