RDA Conducts Large Scale Program Outcome Evaluation for City of San Francisco
San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (www.dcyf.org) administers funds to over 140 community-based organizations and various city departments for a broad range of programs in the areas of early childhood, academic support, enrichment and youth development, health and wellness, youth employment, family support and cultural enrichment. On behalf of DCYF, RDA has just issued 162 organization specific outcome evaluation reports. The evaluation design incorporates the use of a web based data system that permits each organization to enter their client data. The data was used to measure results for a total of 170 outcome measures based on 11 months of data collection. With 162 customized intake forms, as well as scannable client satisfaction surveys translated into seven languages the evaluation relied on multiple points of view to determine quality of services. RDA’s evaluation team members assisted each organization in choosing performance measures, and provided training and technical assistance in using the data system. Consumer satisfaction surveys were administered to children and youth and their parents or caregivers, which were then scanned into a database. We also administered staff surveys that focused on organizational cultural competency. Each individualized report contains between 20 and 30 pages of data, with 1600 variables in each report. For more information please contact Robert Bennett at 299-7729 extension 110

RDA’s experience over the past 20 years in working with community initiatives serves the public in a variety of ways. Robert Bennett has been invited on numerous occasions to serve on review panels that consider proposals for research and funding in mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/) is one of 27 components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Federal government's principal biomedical and behavioral research agency. NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency conducts research on mental disorders and the underlying basic science of brain and behavior; It supports research on these topics at universities and hospitals around the United States; collects, analyzes, and disseminates information on the causes, occurrence, and treatment of mental illnesses; supports the training of more than 1,000 scientists to carry out basic and clinical research; and Communicates information to scientists, the public, the news media, and primary care and mental health professionals about mental illnesses, the brain, mental health, and research in these areas. For information on funding opportunities http://www.nimh.nih.gov/grants/index.cfm.