ProjectReview

The Barr Foundation’s two-year fellowship program sought to invest in exceptional civic leaders in Greater Boston, to strengthen their organizations, and to cultivate a network of leaders committed to the community. Community Science is working with the Barr Foundation and its partners to evaluate fellowship implementation and outcomes at the

Northwest Pennsylvania Job Connect sought to understand local workforce needs, especially the needs of community members that typically experience barriers to employment. Community Science, as a subcontractor to BCT Partners, conducted a survey of local employers, focus groups with providers, and interviews with jobseekers to document the workforce needs of

Community Science is working in partnership with the Urban Institute to evaluate and support leadership institutes for youth and adult community members in Duck Hill, MS. The leadership institutes are intended to support residents by building individual and community resilience and combating exclusion by local government and other decision-making bodies.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Prize honors and elevates communities that are making great strides in their path toward better health for all. The prize is designed to inspire and inform the health and equity journeys of other communities.

The Port of Portland which oversees three airports, four marine terminals, and five business parks, adopted social equity as a strategy objective in 2013. After several years to implementing the strategy, the Port decided to take a step back to reflect on its accomplishments, identify lessons learned, and make improvements

Community Science worked with the Rockefeller Foundation's Director of Measurement, Evaluation, and Organizational Performance and other leaders to advance the use of big data and data science within the evaluation field on this project for ITAD.

Government plays a crucial role in both promoting equity and dismantling policies and practices that perpetuate racial inequity. It controls the resources, how they are allocated and applied, as well as providing vital services to the public. The Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) was established to assist local

The Catholic Diocese of Arlington Migration & Refugee Services (CDAMRS) engaged Community Science to assess the needs of refugee youth and their families in Northern Virginia and the issues faced by agencies in the area that serve these youth and their families. Parents and youth participate in focus groups while

Community Science wrote a comprehensive paper for the Hill-Snowdon Foundation about the history and context for resident-led civic actions in the District of Columbia and the current infrastructure for resident-led community organizing and social justice efforts. The paper included case studies of such current efforts and recommendations for improving the

The primary focus of this evaluation was to assess Centro Familia’s current capacity to monitor and evaluate its training, mentoring, and preschool programs and make recommendations for strengthening this capacity. (2007)

Community Science, with funds from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, conducted a study about issues facing Community Change Initiatives (CCIs) with regard to their ability to attain desired scope, scale, and sustainability. We interviewed leading thinkers and CCI practitioners and reviewed existing publications. The result was a paper that has

Community Science worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to select and rate 11 primers for evaluation commonly used by nonprofits and other organizations. The final product was used by the foundation to guide its grantees in their selection of evaluators and evaluation approaches and methods, given their situation and

Community Science worked with the Montgomery County Collaboration Council on Children, Youth, and Families to identify issues and concerns affecting racial and ethnic minority families and children in the county. The Council used the information to inform its strategy development. As part of the process, Community Science staff interviewed community

Community Science provided assistance to the Fairfax County Department of Systems Management for Human Services to implement a community learning process to increase understanding of issues related to day labor. For one year, Community Science facilitated a learning circle designed to bring stakeholders together to discuss this issue. Stakeholders included,

The American Stop Smoking Intervention Study Trial (ASSIST), funded by the National Cancer Institute, is the largest public health tobacco-control effort in U.S. history. This initiative supported state and local coalitions in 23 states to control tobacco use through policy and other systemic changes. Community Science facilitated the design of

Through a subcontract to the Center for Community Change, we helped assess the level and nature of citizen participation in the evaluation of six Empowerment Zones and 66 Enterprise Communities’ urban programs through a survey and telephone interviews.

Community Science is proud to partner with the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program.

YMCAs across the United States have a common mission to strengthen their communities. Community Science is working with YMCA of the USA to develop a research-backed Theory of Change to define characteristics of a strong community and conduct a research study to understand how YMCAs contribute to stronger communities by

Artplace and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) needed an opportunity to pause and reflect on their Creative Placemaking work to ensure it was responsive to community needs and dreams. Community Science facilitated a process where ArtPlace and NEA staff could discuss their implementation experiences and translate lessons learned

In 2003, Active Voice engaged Community Science to evaluate its New Americans Campaign, which used the stories of several immigrant families to provoke dialogue and exchange between immigrants and receiving communities. As part of this evaluation, Community Science interviewed Active Voice partners in five cities to explore how they used

This initiative’s predecessor, Valuing Diversity, was funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the American Psychological Association, and managed by Community Science from 2000 to 2002. In the Valuing Diversity project (described in more detail later), Community Science worked with a group of psychologists to develop guidelines for regranting and

The purpose of this project, sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, was to improve the quality and effectiveness of evaluation by expanding the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the evaluation profession and by improving the capacity of evaluators to work across cultures. Community Science

The New Orleans Youth Master Plan is a network of youth-serving organizations, young people, and other community stakeholders who are working on building out a 10-year multisector

CCP looks to Community Science to help them study and learn from their Network Change Program how continue to expand a network of leaders centering equity to lead local and regional social change in North and South Dakota.

Since 2011, SAMHSA’s Office of Behavioral Health Equity has been addressing disparities through its National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health conference (NNEDLearn) that trains teams of practitioners from community-based organizations who serve black, indigenous, and other communities of color in implementing culturally relevant evidence-supported practices. To assess the

Health communications firm seeks to develop an equity strategy to deepen their impact through the stories they create to address health inequities impacting low wealth communities and communities of color.

Nonprofit seeks to create learning and evaluation system to scale up their services nation-wide to increase more representation of Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and the gender spectrum in social sector leadership.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) funds initiatives in East Biloxi, Jackson, and Sunflower County, Mississippi (MS), and in New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA), to improve the well-being of children and their families.

Children International is assessing their 5 year strategy focusing on reducing poverty across 13 countries. Specifically they are addressing health, education, and employment needs.  Community Science is supporting the organization's effort by provide Strategy Evaluation support.

Building GroundWork USA's capacity for evaluation, measuring impact, and relaying the impact of its programs.

Community Science worked with the John S. and James L Knight Foundation to document and assess the impact of Crossroads Charlotte. Crossroads Charlotte is an initiative that began in 2001 when Charlotte, North Carolina, was one of 40 communities that participated in a survey that revealed the community had high

Community Science developed a community assessment report of Latino families in Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, Maryland in support of Centro Familia and Centro Nia’s grant application to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services related to early childhood education and support. Centro Familiar’s confidence in Community Science’s ability

Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees commissioned Community Science to write the evaluation-related sections of a toolkit that included a wide range of resources to meet the information needs of foundations that sought to support immigrant integration work.

Community Science evaluated phase I of the Community Action Grant Program, funded by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The evaluation assessed the extent to which phase 1 grantees were able to 1) identify

Community Science provided, to the staff of the Departments of Health for New York State and New York City, technical assistance and training in developing support systems for grantees involved in coalitions and other collaborative efforts.

The United Way of Cincinnati implemented its Vision Councils Initiative as a strategy to engage local organizations in a collaborative, neighborhood-based process to plan and implement more innovative and responsive program strategies. Community Science conducted a capacity assessment and learning process to help United Way staff and volunteer leaders prepare

The Colorado Trust engages Community Science to help accelerate the adoption of it Building and Bridging Power strategy, and strengthen its grantmaking.

The objective of this five-year learning process was to enable the national funders (Charles S. Mott and Ford Foundations) and community and local foundations participating in the program to support neighborhood projects to improve relations between recent immigrants and longtime residents in six metropolitan areas. It was established several months

Community Science assisted the Women’s Community Revitalization Program with a strategic planning process for approaches to improve the availability of affordable housing, promote the rights of underserved women, and improve the lives of low-income families.

A youth-led initiative is transforming health outcomes and driving systems change in Eastern Massachusetts through leadership development and community-based strategies—evaluated by Community Science in partnership with the Atrius Health Equity Foundation.

The Center for Community Progress aspired to hold itself accountable to its strategic plan, measuring and learning from its progress. Community Science collaborated with CCP staff to identify a set of targeted indicators to facilitate their ongoing reflection and adjustment process.

Community Science received a Phase 2 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities to develop and test an innovative product that would assess and strengthen organizations’ cultural competency. The product, which we named Journeystart, is unique in that it assesses organizational

Funders seek to re-envision the definition of a leader and ways to develop and support leadership that will contribute to racial equity and social justice. Our seminal publication describes what we currently know about leadership development and offers key principles that can be integrated into the design, implementation, and evaluation

On behalf of the Foreign-born Information and Referral Network (FIRN), Community Science conducted a demographic study of immigrant groups in Howard County, Maryland. The different phases of the project included a socio-economic review to determine the growth of the immigrant population in the county, assessment of the assets and needs

Changemakers is an organization that supports and promotes community-based philanthropy. Community Science helped develop the organization’s theory of change and processes to monitor Changemakers desired outcomes.

Community Science, under a subcontract with the Battelle Memorial Institute, provided technical direction and other evaluation services for the national evaluation of the Drug Free Communities Support Program, sponsored by the Executive Office of the President, Office of National Drug Policy Control (ONDCP). Community Science conducted an evaluation of 739

The Just Imperative, established in 2018, is a vital way the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (MacArthur Foundation) works towards its goal of making the world fairer, greener, and more peaceful.

Community Science, in partnership with BCT Partners and GDIT, is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OMH) to better understand the use and utility of the Think Cultural Health E-Learning programs on the National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards. 

CFLeads desires to demonstrate the effectiveness of its model at fostering community leadership among community foundations. Community Science has designed and is implementing an evaluation to do just this, focusing on CFLeads’ Economic Mobility Action Network.

Community Science conducted a multiyear process and outcome evaluation of a leadership program designed to train the next generation of equity–focused public health leaders. The study design followed participants through various stages of their training and 12 months after program completion.

The Transforming Communities Initiative (TCI) is a five-year effort to implement comprehensive strategies to address obesity, tobacco-free living, and the social determinants of health with the overall aim to improve health outcomes in Montgomery County, Maryland. The TCI strategies focuses on policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes to improve community

Community Science is conducting a developmental evaluation of The Colorado Trust’s flagship initiative, Community Partnerships for Health Equity. We work closely with the foundation’s evaluation and program staff to understand and document the forms of power that communities had to shift and also build to address the root causes of

The Racial Equity Anchor Collaborative is composed of nine national racial justice organizations: Advancement Project, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Demos, Faith in Action, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Congress of American Indians, National Urban League, Race Forward, and UnidosUS.

The Richmond Memorial Health Foundation needed a partner to both evaluate their racial equity capacity-building initiative to help it improve its grantmaking as well as facilitate cross-grantee learning and reflection. Community Science created and implemented an evaluation and learning process to provide insights about the initiative’s training and learning opportunities,

For nearly 100 years, the National Urban League (NUL) has been devoted to empowering African Americans economically and socially through programs, advocacy, and research. In 2008, the NUL hired the Educational Testing Service (ETS) to develop an evaluation framework for its programs. ETS in turn subcontracted Community Science to develop

Community Science is conducting the evaluation of The Colorado Trust’s Supporting Immigrant and Refugee Families (SIRFI) Immigrant Integration Strategy. Community Science was engaged to examine the impact of the strategy on ten Colorado communities from 2004 until 2009 (2004-2010). Unlike previous models for assimilation and multiculturalism, The Colorado Trust's immigrant

The Summit Health Institute for Research and Education, Inc. (SHIRE) asked Community Science to design and conduct an evaluation that documents the program’s implementation and assesses the extent to which the project’s objectives were achieved. Community Science surveyed collaboration partners and conducted focus groups with Ward 8 residents, and submitted

After attending a presentation about evaluation and its use by Community Science at the Grantmakers in Health’s conference on the Art and Science of Health Grantmaking, the foundation engaged Community Science to assist in building its capacity to monitor the short- and long-term impact of their work in the greater

Project Harmony is a project of the Family Equality Council that seeks to provide a voice to same-sex families of color and address issues such as racism, oppression, and economic justice. Community Science conducted a process evaluation of Project Harmony; our activities included a review of data collection instruments and

Under a six-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA-Center for Mental Health Services), Nassau University Medical Center and New York State Families Together have created the Nassau County Family Support System of Care (NCFSSOC) to provide a single

Plain Talk is a program developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation to reduce the number of teen pregnancies and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) by increasing communication and sexual health education for teenagers. The foundation engaged Community Science to survey Plain Talk stakeholders to evaluate the program’s implementation at the

The certification program of Adventist Community Services consists of training to build participants’ 1) management and technical skills, 2) leadership skills, and 3) understanding of biblical concepts. Community Science was engaged to help Adventist Community Services build its capacity around evaluation by walking the organization through the evaluation process and

In response to survey data in early 2006 indicating that teenagers in Telluride, Colorado, had drug and alcohol usage rates above the national average, the Telluride Foundation launched a drug and alcohol prevention program at two local high schools. The program funded a counselor to develop and implement a prevention

Community Science was engaged by the foundation in 2007 to evaluate this particular ten-year objective. As part of the initial support, we helped the foundation convene and facilitate an advisory committee to develop a framework for improving patient-provider relations as a means to reducing health disparities. (2007-2008). At around the

Two Gems Consulting Services engaged Community Science to help evaluate the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Building Diversity Initiative. (Community Science’s involvement in the development of the Building Diversity Initiative is described later.) The evaluation used qualitative and quantitative methods to determine the status of 14 recommendations proposed by the initiative’s

As part of a subcontract to Campaign Consultation’s work for the Corporation for National & Community Service, Community Science reviewed mentoring and non-mentoring programs available to youth aging out of foster care to determine what worked and didn’t work and why. This review consisted of 1) an examination of both

Community Science designed an evaluation to assess the extent to which TEPP - implemented by The University of Maryland Baltimore County - met the National Science Foundation’s outcome expectations, including: improved communication skills and teaching skills for fellows, enriched learning by K-12 students, professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers, and

Making Connections is the flagship initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s strategy to help children succeed based on the belief that the best way to improve outcomes for vulnerable children living in tough neighborhoods is to strengthen their families’ connections to economic opportunity, positive social networks, and effective services

In 2006, The Colorado Trust funded 14 organizations to improve their cultural competency in order to strengthen their capacity to reduce health disparities. Community Science was engaged to evaluate the initiative, specifically assessing: 1) changes in cultural competency among grantees, 2) the influence of cultural competency changes on grantee interventions

RESPECT is an affinity group within the foundation that focuses on racial and other forms of equity in the foundation’s grantmaking, operations, and services. Community Science was engaged by RESPECT in 2006 to help refine its theory of change and to assess its impact on the foundation through secondary data

This initiative is a three-year partnership between the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to build the capacity of organizations, led by people of color, to advocate for more equitable food policies. Based on the recommendation of a nationally known evaluator and funder, the Noyes Foundation

The Fannie Mae Foundation engaged Community Science in 2006 to review and analyze the performance data for its Alliance initiative, a collaboration of high-performing housing producers, community development finance institutions, and home buyer counseling agencies. The goal of this three-year initiative was to increase the ability of these three types

Community Science worked with the Choice Program to develop and implement systems to facilitate data-based decision-making by all program staff, and evaluated the extent to which the Choice Program reduced problem behavior. Community Science also provided an independent assessment of the Choice Refocus & Opportunity (R & O) program during

Community Science was engaged to perform a cross-site analysis and create a report on the implementation process and outcomes for all eight of the institute's research partner sites, as well as case study reports on the Massachusetts and Oregon sites. The cross-site report focused on knowledge gleaned from site visits

Community Science designed and implemented an evaluation of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management’s Cultural Competency Initiative. The evaluation process determined the extent to which the initiative achieved its goals, while also generating knowledge about what it takes to increase the cultural competency of nonprofit leaders. (2005-2007) Community Science published the

This initiative, sponsored by a funding collaborative led by the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation and established in 1998, aimed at building relations between immigrants and longtime residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan region. Community Science was engaged to evaluate the initiative. We developed a grantee reporting process where

Community Science provided evaluation and capacity-building services to the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) for the initiative Embedding Prevention in State Policy and Practice. Community Science examined the effectiveness of approaches used to embed prevention in state policy and practice in six states and helped NCPC build its capacity to

The Washington, D.C., Human Capital Development Initiative, administered by the CDSC provided a variety of human capital development programs to local Community Development Corporations (CDCs). Community Science was engaged to evaluate the CDSC’s efforts to increase the pool of people trained to work for local CDCs. Community Science also evaluated

The National Coalition Building engaged Community Science to examine the goals and achievements of 20 chapters and to document how chapters went about effecting institutional change.

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation engaged Community Science to evaluate Kansas City’s effort to ensure the success of its future generations by increasing their access to caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, marketable skills and opportunities to give back through community service. For the evaluation, we built systems for

The non-profit organization Community IMPACT! worked with neighborhood stakeholders to support community service projects that involve people from the community, improve the community, and invest in the community's future. Community Science evaluated Community IMPACT!'s work and of the role of youth in community building. Community Science helped build the organization's

The Community Ministry is involved in providing emergency and other services to needy families in Montgomery County, Maryland. Community Science worked with ministry senior staff to develop a system that would enable them to monitor and evaluate their work. Community Science provided the ministry with a toolkit, weekly coaching sessions

WAPI, a public/private funding collaborative led by The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, aimed to build the capacity of immigrant-led and/or immigrant-serving organizations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to better support their members and service recipients. Community Science was engaged by The Community Foundation to evaluate WAPI

Community Science was engaged to provide technical assistance to New Beginnings, a program funded by the Public Education Reform Partnership, to build a sense of community among parents, students, teachers, staff, principals, and community-based organizations to establish school communities. Community Science submitted a final report summarizing the activities of the

LISC engaged Community Science to evaluate its Community Building Initiative, which involved 30 Community Development Corporations (CDCs) across the country. The CBI was intended to improve the CDCs’ capacity to go beyond “bricks and mortar” and to improve their communities’ social development. Community Science interviewed national and local LISC staff,

FoodCorp sought to ensure its Alumni program sees increased participation by BIMPOC leaders, and is on the cutting edge of the food system with the help of Community Science.

Community Science and partner Sankofa Consulting, are helping the Hilton Foundation’s Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation Division to develop and integrate practices that reflect equity, inclusion and diversity into their responsibilities, operations, and support to the foundation’s program staff.

There are many questions about the definition, practice, and evaluation of effective leadership in philanthropy, especially leadership that has the concerns and priorities of communities of color in mind. In response, the Bush Foundation engaged Community Science to conduct a brief study on the state-of-the-art knowledge about leading with a

The purpose of this national program, sponsored by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, was to develop the capacity of three middle schools in low income communities to become national full-service community school model programs that could be adopted by other communities. The participating schools represented different contexts (e.g. urban and

With support from the Fannie Mae Foundation, Community Science facilitated the development and operation of a school-community collaborative at H. G. Woodson High School in the District of Columbia. This project developed a comprehensive investment plan for the high school; increased resources available for Woodson students; and increased and strengthened

The National Health Services Corps (NHSC) has been bringing health services to underserved communities for more than 25 years. Community Science assisted NHSC and its parent agency, the Bureau of Primary Health Care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to use NHSC's 25th anniversary celebration as an

Community Science worked with the University of Colorado’s Center for Global Health to build its capacity for interdisciplinary graduate training through the development of a fund that will more fully integrate the School of Medicine’s Global Health Track with the Colorado School of Public Health’s Certificate Program in Global Health

Community Science conducted a community assessment that examined how Head Start-eligible children are cared for while their parents work and/or go to school; the parents' view of their children's educational and social service needs; and the feasibility of service delivery strategies under consideration to assist Montgomery County [Maryland] Department of

The purpose of the project, funded by the Winrock International, was to engage small farmers in local, regional, and national discussions of agricultural and environmental issues; support local policy development and activities; and develop a set of long-term national policy recommendations. Community Science was engaged by the foundation to assess

Project Director Strategic Evaluation Partner on Black Wealth Development (Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative). According to data from the United States Census Bureau, Atlanta Georgia has the highest income inequality among large US cities. The city’s entrenched racial disparities have been attributed to driving much of Atlanta’s income

National Institute for Nonprofits leverages Community Science data analysis abilities while building their capacity to self-monitor and evaluate work.

This project supports the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (formerly the National Vaccine Program Office) to address Goal 3 of the National Vaccine Plan, which focuses on developing and disseminating communications that provide accurate, timely, transparent, and audience-appropriate information about vaccines. Achieving this goal is closely tied to

The National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA), led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, mobilized a nationwide, comprehensive, community-driven, and sustained approach to combating health disparities. Community Science’s involvement began with our support to help develop the National Stakeholder Strategy

The mission of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. Through the AmeriCorps State and National (ASN) program, CNCS has engaged millions of citizens in meeting community and national challenges through service and volunteer action.

The Barr Foundation’s Barr Fellowship is a two-year program designed to invest in exceptional civic leaders, to strengthen their organizations, and to cultivate a network of leaders committed to Greater Boston. This fellowship was conceived in 2005 and has since connected 80 leaders from many backgrounds, organizations, and fields. Community

MassDevelopment sought to deepen the Transformation Development Initiative’s (TDI) impact on improving residents’ quality of life and increasing investment and economic activity by reflecting on the initiative’s first phase of implementation. Community Science partnered with MassDevelopment on a Rapid Assessment of the TDI program, recommending improvements and documenting TDI’s influence

For the last three years, Community Science has been at the forefront of the battle against misinformation about the efficacy and safety of vaccines by assisting the US Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO), recently renamed as the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV AIDS

In 2008, the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) reviewed its grant portfolios and results achieved to date in order to strengthen its future grant making and operations, including how it funded, planned, and used evaluations. AECF selected Community Science to compile lessons learned by foundation staff from the many evaluations

Building on the work funded initially by The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region and supplemented by additional funds from the Public Interest Project, Community Science interviewed immigrant leaders in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as well as in other parts of the country about the meaning and practice

The primary focus of the evaluation is to assess a new component of the Jericho Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Through funds provided by the Abell Foundation, 70% of men participating in the Jericho program will be provided supportive housing services. Community Science was contracted for two years to evaluate the effect

Living Cities developed a theory of change and measurement framework to assess its own performance and that of its local government partners and looked to Community Science for help with Implementation.

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) needed to understand how local Learning Cohort–Neighborhood Revitalization (LC-NR) coalitions were implementing HFHI’s Quality of Life framework in order to deepen their community impact. Community Science met this need by designing an evaluation to assess LC-NR implementation and their outcomes, while also building coalitions’ evaluation

Living Cities engaged Community Science to build the capacity of its Learning, Storytelling, and Results team to coordinate the analysis, reporting, and interpretation of data across multiple portfolios of work in support of its theory of change.

Neighborworks’ Success Measures, with support of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, needed to assess the reliability and validity of their Health Tools, a suite of data collection instruments, in order to better serve housing and community development organizations measuring the health outcomes of their work. Community Science, in partnership with

Community Science assisted the Land Trust Alliance in developing a plan for monitoring and evaluating their work with 1600 land trusts throughout the U.S. As part of the first phase of evaluation, Community Science facilitated a senior staff meeting and provided a report of the meeting with recommendations to advance

Community Science was engaged by the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Evaluation Unit to develop a guide for foundation grantees to measure and monitor their core capacities for community change. The guide was distributed to the foundation’s Making Connections grantees.

The Community Partnership for Children in Queen Anne County, Maryland, is a local government organization responsible for the planning, implementation, and monitoring of programs that support youth, families, and communities. Community Science assisted this partnership to develop their capacity to collect, analyze, and use the Sense of Community Index to

NCPC Key Lessons Learned from Evaluating a Multi-state Initiative to Embed Prevention in State Policies

Community Science assisted the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) in determining what they and other funders have learned and are experimenting with in order to create community changes that provide opportunities for children and their caregivers. The results of this internal foundation learning process identified the foundation’s own strategy in

In 2006, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation launched Aligning Forces for Quality, a $300 million national health care quality initiative designed to build the capacity of 14 local communities to collaborate and influence health care quality outcomes. The primary goals of the program are to improve 1) the quality of

The de Beaumont Foundation’s Public Health Reaching across Sectors (PHRASES) program was designed to address the need for effective strategies and framing and messaging techniques to help public health professionals effectively communicate the value of public health to potential partners and decision makers.

Community Science is partnering with the Interactions Institute for Social Change to design and facilitate a learning process among the FRBB, MAPC, and GARE, about their collaboration. This collaboration is new and so provides many opportunities to build the capacity of three distinct organizations to learn to work together and

The Bush Foundation’s Change Networks provide cohort-style programs that equip a diverse group of people in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota with skills, knowledge, relationships, and opportunities to lead change in a more equitable and inclusive manner.

Community Science recently completed the evaluation for The Partnership at Drugfree.org’s Parents: You Matter! community education program, which was designed to educate parents of 12- to 17-year-olds about adolescent substance abuse and provide tools and resources to prevent it. The evaluation tested the effectiveness of the program on parents’ ability

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the American Red Cross realized that no single entity had the capacity to comprehensively and effectively respond to the massive human needs and sweeping public demand for service following a natural disaster. They engaged a diverse group of community partners and collaborative representatives in a

Philanthropy MA engages in creating pathways to advance Race, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion across the Massachusetts philanthropic sector

For five years, Community Science monitored and evaluated the performance of community policing efforts in six communities for the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation. The monitoring process included analysis of crime data, community surveys, and analysis of educational performance data, as well as review of juvenile justice data in some communities.

As a subcontractor to the Touchstone Center for Collaboration Inquiry’s evaluation of the Immigrant Participation & Immigration Reform effort funded by the Four Freedom Fund, Community Science documented the experiences of national, regional, and local organizations that advocate for immigration policy reform.

AARP has a long-term social impact agenda to ensure that Americans 50 years and older have “independence, choice and control in ways that are beneficial and affordable for them and society as a whole.” As part of this agenda, AARP established a community-based initiative to help catalyze and support local

This project's aim was to work with the county’s Housing Development Steering Committee (comprising representatives from the public, private, and non-profit sectors) to develop a Housing Needs and Action Plan for Richland County

Community Science was subcontracted through Campaign Consultation to contact individuals involved in the VISTA program to gather comments related to the AmeriCorps*VISTA performance measurement initiative and toolkit. Community Science conducted interviews and focus groups with program supervisors, coordinators, and volunteers and provided a report of findings. (2003)

Community Science gathered information for The Community Foundation for the National Capitol Region regarding the impact of 9/11 on immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. We also examined the capacities needed to strengthen immigrant communities in their ability to address identified issues. Community Science interviewed over 50 individuals

The Walton Family Foundation’s community organizing campaign is designed to mobilize residents in 13 cities to become civically engaged and to advocate for high-quality traditional and alternative schools. Community Science was contracted to complete the developmental evaluation by examining grantees’ progress in using the community organizing strategy,

The Barr Foundation seeks to foster mobility policymaking that drives toward equity. Community Science is supporting Barr by documenting existing policy analysis tools, particularly those designed for the mobility context, to assess their ability to elevate policies’ positive and negative equitable impacts.

Community Science is conducting research on behalf of the William Penn Foundation to identify opportunities for immediate investment opportunities to promote a racially, economically, and socially just recovery from the COVID-19 in Philadelphia—based on interviews with approximately 50 community based organization leaders.

The Executives' Alliance for Boys and Men of Color seeks to improve knowledge, coordination, and collaboration within philanthropy to improve outcomes for boys and men of color. Community Science supported the Alliance by conducting a retrospective evaluation of its first five years of work, including documenting the health of the

So, what's the best way to get people to buy and eat more fresh food? The Community Science team, led by Project Director Ricardo Millett, is working to find out by conducting a cluster evaluation of four healthy food incentive programs that provide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients with

Community Science began its contractual relationship with The California Endowment in 2006 when we helped the foundation’s evaluation unit identify best practices (including measures) used by evaluators for monitoring and evaluating grants and initiatives that address systems change, coalition building, capacity building, and community organizing. Community Science conducted in-depth interviews

Community Science conducted a national cross-site evaluation of this initiative of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in 11 urban, rural, and tribal communities. We also provided evaluation technical assistance and capacity-building support to local Safe Start communities. The purpose of the initiative

Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal (SBCR) is a faith-based community change initiative focused on improving the well-being of low-income residents in the cities of Shreveport and Bossier, Louisiana. Part of the organization’s strategy is to build relationships among low-income and other residents and institutions in the area. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Funders Collaborative for Youth Organizing engaged Community Science to develop a written guide for youth-organizing groups that would enable them to strengthen their organizations. The guide was not intended to replace the use of skilled consultants and other resources, but to better prepare these organizations in determining what they

Community Science conducted a grant program analysis and a learning process for the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to build the foundation's capacity to support social, economic, and community development initiatives. The conference was funded to build the capacity of foundation grantees to conduct useful evaluations. It brought together 28 grantees

NCBI seeks to build capacity to respond to the complex issues of anti-semitism in higher education by creating a new program to empower Jewish and non-Jewish students, faculty and staff to work with campus partners identifying and addressing the issue.

The Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries initiative seeks to bring about effective, sustainable public access to information and communications technology in libraries for people in developing and transitioning countries who would not otherwise have access, and to ensure it is useful and used in ways that improve people’s lives and spread

To assist the Land Trust Alliance in building an evaluation framework to assist in critical decision making and improve the Alliance’s performance, Community Science facilitated an evaluation planning retreat on behalf of the Alliance in 2007. Our approach also will include a staff survey and interviews with 18 key stakeholders

The New Orleans Youth Master Plan is a network of youth-serving organizations, young people, and other community stakeholders who are working on building out a 10-year multisector

Community Science is partnering with SPARCC (Strong Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge - a national effort to ensure that major new infrastructure investments “lead to equitable and healthy opportunities for everyone”) to foster wider use of community ownership models in US cities. Through this research partnership, we convened leaders in

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation sought to understand the demographic characteristics of the principal investigators and leaders of organizations that received its grants. Community Science is working with the foundation to develop, pilot, and administer surveys to capture the racial, ethnic, sexual, gender, and disability identifies of principal investigators and

Community Science is authoring commissioned paper on the current environment for the coordinated delivery of post-disaster human services for children and families—particularly services provided by the Administration of Children and Families.

Knight Foundation needed to track and understand the effectiveness of its community-focused grant-making in order to maximize community benefit. Community Science assisted the Knight Foundation by developing literature-backed metrics recommendations for its community-focused investments, mapping out pathways of change and recommending research-informed metrics for six of the foundation’s focus communities.

Using Data Science to Reduce Foster Care While Supporting Families - Casey Family Programs

We helped MBKA think through evaluation and data uses as the project created an infrastructure around data. Community Science helped MBKA develop metrics for successful outcomes

With support from The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Community Science convened in 2000 a group of immigrant leaders in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area to develop strategies for increasing immigrant civic participation. Participants learned from each other about the meaning and practice of civic participation in their

With support from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Community Science conducted an evaluation of the U.S.-Mexico Border States Prevention Initiative. The purpose of the project was to improve collaboration among local, state, and federal service providers and agencies and their Mexican counterparts in the four border states. Community Science

As mentioned before, this project preceded the Building Amidst Diversity project. The goal of this project was to enhance the capacity of the psychology profession to assist communities in addressing issues related to diversity. The project had three objectives: 1) to assemble a database of psychology literature and model programs

Community Science assisted in the development of a national capacity-building strategy on community building, collaboration, and violence prevention on behalf of the National Funding Collaborative. Community Science’s assistance included consultation on an immersion training program for community violence prevention workers, an inventory of national intermediaries that assist communities with violence

The Walton Family Foundation (WFF) enlists Community Science to assist in translating abstract concepts—like sense of belonging and leadership strength—into measurable performance indicators with clear data sources. Read more.

Community Science assisted the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and its community partners in the design and implementation of the Yes We Can! initiative, aimed to address the educational and economic development of seven Battle Creek neighborhoods and the rest of the city through a comprehensive resident-driven process. Community Science managed the

The National Eye Institute (NEI)’s National Eye Health Education Program designed the ¡Ojo con Su Visión! (Watch Out for Your Vision!) program to help raise awareness about the importance of eye health among Hispanics and Latinos.