Program Evaluation Group News

The Curtis Research and Training Center at the School of Social Work hosted the first annual Program Evaluation Symposium on Friday, February 14, 2014.  This day-long event was organized by the Program Evaluation Group and culminated with a keynote address by the President of the American Evaluation Symposium (AEA), Dr. Beverly Parsons.

Dr. Parson's keynote, "Visionary Evaluation for a Sustainable, Equitable Future," highlighted the need for systems thinking, buidling new relationships, and an emphasis on sustainable, equitable living in evaluation. After the keynote address, attendees were invited to participate in small group discussions based on the topic of the keynote. Dr. Parsons will use feedback from the event to inform the direction of the AEA Annual Conference.

The Curtis Center Program Evaluation Group (CC-PEG) received a grant from the New York Community Trust to improve the macro social work profesion.  The awarded Place-Based Evaluation (PBE) Fellowship project was developed to better understand the needs and challenges related to building internal evaluation capacity within non-profit organizations.  The project will place three (3) PBE Fellows into community-based non-profit organizations in southeast Michigan for 20 hours per week for a period of eight (8) months.

The aims of the PBE Fellowship are to: (1) provide recent MSW graduates with the skills and experience necessary to work as professional evaluators in the field of social work; (2) provide communtiy-based non-profit organizations with quality evaluation services at a reduced cost; and (3) build and test the internal capacity for evaluation at each organization.

CC-PEG is happy to announce the selection of the PBE Fellows and non-profit organizations they will be placed in:

• Phylicia Allen, MSW, will be placed at Detroit Parent Network
• Ashley Eason, MSW, will be placed at Detroit Police Athletic League
• Lauren Emerson, MSW, will be placed at SOS Community Services in Ypsilanti

For more information on the PBE Fellowship project, contact programevalgroup@umich.edu. 

Assistant Clinical Professor Sue Ann Savas presented on a panel titled "Innovative Approaches to Child Support Enforcement: Evidence from Field Research" at the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM) 35th Annual Fall Research Conference on November 9, 2013.  Sue Ann Savas and Jeremy Gaertner, MSW presented on the Re-tooling Michigan's Child Support Enforcement Program project in conjuction with representatives from Washington and Iowa who received the same grant from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (DHHS).

The APPAM Fall Research Conference was held in Washington, DC from November 7-9, 2013.

2013 MSW and MPH candidate, Nick Yankey, presented "Developing and implementing a process, context, and outcome evaluation of a statewide community health worker alliance" on the evaluation activities being conducted for the Michigan Community Health Worker Alliance. Staff member Katherine Mitchell and faculty member Edie Kieffer were co-authors on this presentation. 

The American Public Health Association annual meeting was held in Boston, MA on November 2-6.

Clinical Assistant Professor Sue Ann Savas conducted a training for 30 community members representing approximately 10 organizations on utilizing logic models for program development through the Washtenaw Alliance for Children and Youth on October 30, 2013.  Participants learned about the benefits of using logicl models in design, evaluation, and grant getting and how to develop a program logic model for a new or existing program.