Updates, stories, and expert insights from Community Science on research, evaluation, and community change.
Philanthropy has long recognized the importance of engaging and working with communities to address physical and mental health, education, employment, entrepreneurship and other economic outcomes.
As part of our recognition of National Minority Health Month, Community Science hosted a webinar How to Assess the Effectiveness of Affordable Care Act Outreach and Education Efforts on April 29, 2015. Kien Lee (Vice President and Principal Associate) and Oscar Espinosa (Senior Associate) discussed strategies and lessons learned from an evaluation project their team completed for the Department of Health and Human Services' National Partnership for Action to End…
For almost two years now, media outlets have been acquainting the U.S. public with the conditions in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria made landfall in September 20, 2017.1 Less prominent in these accounts, however, are discussions about how, instead of creating the conditions reported, this disaster brought to the surface the limited capacity of the local government to tend to the needs of its constituents as well as the long-standing…
Community Science has worked closely with Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) to support the expansion of its neighborhood revitalization strategy and to deepen the field's understanding of best practices for improving neighborhood quality of life. This work builds on HFHI's previous investment in developing and refining its model for neighborhood revitalization, the Quality of Life Framework (QLF). To support HFHI's learning, Community Science is conducting a five-year outcomes and implementation…
Most neighborhood-focused change efforts are designed to improve residents' overall quality of life. The assumption is that if we are able to improve neighborhood conditions such as housing quality and affordability, employment options, the quality of local schools, and the sense of community among residents, then residents' lives will improve. This thinking is grounded in research that has shown, over and over, that environmental factors affect our lives and the…
Despite decades of research, behavioral health disparities continue to negatively affect ethnic and racial minority populations, including immigrant populations. To reduce disparities, behavioral health programs need to be successful in reaching and influencing subcultural groups while also demonstrating effectiveness in improving targeted outcomes (Barrera et al., 2013). Indeed, for the last several decades, the behavioral health field has emphasized the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs). These dynamics led practitioners to…