Services
Evaluation
Staff Contact: Lesli
Johnson
ILGARD provides comprehensive project evaluation services
to government and nonprofit organizations. ILGARD teams can
assess the design of a project's objectives and its overall
effectiveness or provide tailored self-evaluation mechanisms
and benchmarking indicators.
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Student, faculty and staff collaboration is key to achieving
excellence in public service projects.
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ILGARD staff often partner with university faculty to provide
evaluation services, thereby offering a broad range of topic
expertise - from health care to telecommunications to the
environment.
Two examples of evaluation projects are the Even Start
Family Literacy Program and A Consumer Controlled Network
of Support and Its Implications for a Model of Recovery in
Fairfield County.
The Even Start Family Literacy Program (see
article) in Belmont County adds parenting skills programs
to existing services, such as Adult Basic Literacy Education
and Head Start, to meet the literacy development needs of
families. As evaluator, ILGARD assists in the design of program
objectives and evaluation mechanisms, conducts regular site
visits, provides ongoing technical assistance, prepares an
evaluation report and assists in the development of a family
literacy "product." This product is a training seminar
designed to teach interagency collaboration to member agencies
of the Belmont County Interagency Council and the Even Start
Advisory Committee.
A Consumer Controlled Network of Support and Its Implications
for a Model of Recovery in Fairfield County (see
article) is the research component of an Ohio Department
of Mental Health program called The Recovery Initiative
which funds consumer-run projects in Ohio. ILGARD's evaluation
research is examining the relationship between consumers'
(mentally ill persons in recovery) involvement in the organization
FMHCG and these positive outcomes:
- An increase in consumers' quality of life and self-esteem;
- An increase in consumers' social support system and problem
solving resources; and
- A reduction of stigma in the community.
The research also examines the extent to which consumers
are able to create and sustain their own self-help organization.
Research from Recovery Initiative projects will inform
the Ohio Department of Mental Health for future direction
in funding consumer-run projects, programs and services.
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