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ILGARD STAFF MEMBER PRESENTS AT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

December 2001

Effective self-evaluation for local government agencies was the topic of two papers recently presented at an international conference by Paul Longo, the outcome evaluator for the Appalachian Partnership for Welfare Reform (APWR), a program of ILGARD at Ohio University's Voinovich Center for Leadership & Public Affairs.

The papers detailing APWR's successful evaluation capacity-building model were presented at the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). AEA is an international professional association devoted to the application and exploration of many forms of evaluation. Approximately 1,250 individuals from various nations attended this year's AEA conference November 7-10, 2001, in St. Louis, Missouri.

"We created an evaluation strategy for a county Department of Job and Family Services (DJFS) based on the most promising practices in the field," explained Longo. "After an intensive training program that was customized to meet the county's specific needs, we worked with the agency for one year to implement the new evaluation tool. When the contract ended, the county DJFS decided to continue to use the approach, adapting and expanding it on their own.

"Seeing the agency really use the evaluation tool is a huge accomplishment for us," said Longo. "It demonstrates that our materials are effective in helping local agencies improve."

Longo presented this case study as part of the conference's Presidential Strand, a special section of research emphasizing the AEA conference theme of mainstreaming evaluation.

In addition, Longo also presented another paper that explored the significance and influence of culture on the development of evaluation training.