OUR NEWS

The Impact of Cross-Cultural Competency

Understanding cultural and social contexts goes a long way towards increasing equity for all.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Minority Health, cultural and linguistic competence is defined as "...a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals that enables effective work in cross-cultural situations."
But what does this mean in the real world? And what is its impact on overcoming disparities in health and social services?

One word: Understanding.

Understanding the histories and prevalent patterns of human behavior in a community, system or environment. Understanding people's cultural beliefs, values and customs. And understanding how those factors come into play when working to affect social change. Cross-cultural competency is a way to create the space and structures to promote equity.
When stated that simply, it's easy to see the importance of cultural competency to elected officials, public servants, medical and social service professionals, or anyone stepping into a new environment with the intent of making an impact. Meaningful, lasting transformation is much more possible when we look beyond simply what needs to change and better understand why, how, and what effect it will have on those at the center of such change.

"Cultural competency is one of the main ingredients in closing the disparities gap in health care. It's the way patients and doctors can come together and talk about health concerns without cultural differences hindering the conversation, but enhancing it. Quite simply, health care services that are respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs, practices and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patients can help bring about positive health outcomes."
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Community Science Works With Clients to Build Cross-Cultural Competencies

Community Science works with all our clients to translate the understanding of context, described above, into a comprehensive strategy to strengthen individuals', organizations', and systems' capacity to effectively serve diverse children, youth, adults, and families. The following efforts are just a few examples of the impact of cross-cultural competency on reducing health disparities, achieving health equity, promoting social justice, and improved systems of care.

As stated in the evaluation of The Colorado Trust's Equality in Health Initiative, "...in the coming decades racial and ethnic minorities will constitute more than 50% of many states' populations." However, even when minorities have the same insurance status, access, age income and chronic conditions, they still tend to receive lower-quality health care than the white population. Cultural competency can help promote and ensure equality in treatment and medical services, attainment of equal access to health care, improvements of environmental conditions, and increased healthy behaviors.

A Message From David Chavis

Happy New Year from Community Science

On behalf of Community Science, I'd like to wish our friends, colleagues, and partners a happy New Year. We are looking forward to another year of making a difference in the health and well-being of the communities across this nation as well as the world. On January 23, we celebrated our 16th birthday! With the range of opportunities we have to build national and local capacity for community and systems changes, it's going to be a very "sweet 16". We are privileged to have been able to work on projects that take on issues of poverty, economic development, health disparities, food justice, the service system for children with mental health issues and their families, intergroup relations and immigrant integration, access to information and technology, minority leadership, placed based support for early childhood development, and other community change initiatives. Our long term commitment to data and evaluation capacity building really blossomed in 2012, as you see from the description of the Knowledge for Equity Conference in this issue of The Change Agent and last issue's focus on our evaluation capacity building. We are going to continue to deepen this work over the next year.

Making a Difference with Data

Knowledge for Equity Conference offers more proof that community-level data drives insight and action in ending health disparities.

In November of 2012, Community Science leaders and staff designed and facilitated the Knowledge For Equity Conference, which aimed to help community-based organizations in their efforts to better use data and other sources of knowledge to promote health equity and address health disparities.

Opening speaker J. Nadine Gracia, MD, MSCE, gave attendees a summary of efforts by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase data access and use, and emphasized the importance of aggregated data in driving solutions to bring more equity to the availability and accessibility of health care.
Dr. Gracia is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Minority Health (Acting) and the Acting Director of the Office of Minority Health at HHS, and offered this unique insight:

"Community-based organizations and leaders like you are central to this knowledge transformation and dissemination process. You are on the ground collecting the data, identifying what works and what doesn't work, and using data to mobilize people into action. And that's why, at HHS, we have looked to partner with community-based organizations in our efforts to end health disparities."

Making it Count Through Coordination and Collaboration

Community Science helps build strong community infrastructure by supporting Systems of Care

Change is rarely an individual effort. In order to shift even the simplest process, multiple stakeholders must be involved, working collaboratively to ensure that no needs are left unmet. Unfortunately, it's far easier in theory than it is in practice. For youth- and family-serving systems, achieving this goal means working with their counterparts in other agencies and organizations to coordinate - and integrate - services available for children and youth in the multiple systems, and those at risk of behavioral and other health challenges.

Meeting the needs of these children means building a better system.

That's the foundation of Systems of Care programs throughout the United States - a service delivery approach that builds partnerships across agencies and communities to create a broad, integrated process for meeting families' multiple needs.
Although Systems of Care were originally developed to address the needs of children with serious emotional disturbances, the approach is now being applied to other populations whose needs require services from multiple agencies, including youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Turning Information Into Insight and Action

Since our founding over 15 years, ago, Community Science has seen a great expansion in the practice of evaluation by foundations, government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Nowadays just about every grantee knows that their funder is going to want an evaluation of their work or some data to show that they are achieving what they set out to achieve. Two challenges emerge from this promotion of evaluation. First, evaluation costs time and money, especially if you use an outside evaluator. Few organizations know what to look for in an evaluator or in a good evaluation. If evaluation is too expensive to do on a regular basis, it becomes something done for the funder and not for the benefit of the organization or the people it serves. It cannot become a “habit” if the cost is too great to sustain. A second challenge is that many organizations are collecting data about their community and work- some are even drowning in it. However, there has been relatively little effort placed on how to use data for strategy improvement to do a better job in addressing social problems and make important organizational decisions, and advocate for better policies and programs. In order to advocate for change, evidence is critical.

Not only can outside evaluations be non-sustainable and cost-prohibitive, they often leave decision-makers with data they can't completely understand, or act upon.

These challenges put our spotlight for the last several years on building organizational and community capacity to monitor, evaluate, reflect, and act using data and other sources of knowledge. It is essential for organizations to have access to sound relevant data that have already been collected from schools, government agencies, and other public projects. One of the earliest issues Community Science has been addressing is data inequity- the unequal access to data about communities and their residents. Very often businesses, government agencies, and consulting firms have access to data that local community-based organizations cannot get because of costs or availability. Community Science has conducted two studies to look at how data in every state can be made more accessible by community based organizations. One looked at the drug abuse related data for the White House Office of National Drug Abuse Policy and the other was recently completed for the Office of Minority Health on data related to the social determinants of health. Community Science will also be conducting a town hall meeting on November 14th about how the federal government can increase access to useful and useable data by community based organizations as part of our Knowledge for Equity Conference (see www.knowledge4equity.com).

Knowledge for Equity Conference - November 13-14, 2012

Community Science is pleased to announce a national conference, Knowledge for Equity: Using Data to Address Health Disparities, which will be held on November 13th and 14th, 2012, in Silver Spring, Maryland. Knowledge for Equity will help community-based organizations to better use data and other sources of knowledge to promote health equity and address health disparities. The conference will be designed to support community groups in accessing existing national, state, or local data; and analyze and use these data to end health disparities. Over the two day conference, attendees will participate in workshops and breakout sessions, and attend presentations on how to use existing data at the local, state, and national levels. The conference is primarily for members of community-based efforts (coalitions, grassroots organizations, etc.) and nonprofit organizations, use data to advance their health equity or health disparities work, but is open to anyone interested in health equity work. For more information about the Knowledge for Equity Conference and to register, see Knowledge 4 Equity.

Welcoming America - Building a Nation of Neighbors

Immigrant integration isn't new to Community Science. In fact, CS has been involved in immigrant integration work since 1999, when we provided technical assistance and other support to a national effort funded by the Ford and Mott Foundations in partnership with six local foundations to build relationships between long-time residents and newcomers. IN 2005, we evaluated The Colorado Trust's Immigrant Integration Initiative. That same year, 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. Based on the research and findings of these and many other projects, Principal Associate and Vice President, Kien Lee, presented on the definition and meaning of immigrant integration at the International Community Psychology Conference in Lisbon in 2010.

SNAP Incentive Cluster Evaluation

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 incentives to shop at farmers' markets. Formerly known as the federal Food Stamp Program, SNAP focuses on nutrition as much as benefits.

These food incentive programs - operated by Fair Food Network, Wholesome Wave, Market Umbrella, and Roots of Change - match SNAP recipients' benefits at varying rates which ultimately enables recipients to purchase more fruit and vegetables than they would otherwise be able to afford.

The Achievement of Economic Inclusion

In many urban and rural communities in the United States, patterns of long-term disinvestment and persistent racial and economic segregation have been major contributing factors resulting in areas of concentrated poverty. As a consequence of a variety of structural and systemic problems, residents in these disadvantaged communities are isolated from economic opportunities in the broader city or region.

These neighborhoods often lack access to essential services and amenities, such as effective schools and training programs, reliable transportation, non-predatory financial services, quality child care and health services, and fresh, affordable food outlets.

In part reflecting the limited educational resources available to them, many working-age residents in these communities have low educational attainment and few marketable skills. These characteristics, plus the lack of supportive services, contribute to the difficulties that these individuals face in securing and maintaining employment that can lead to family economic security. In addition, many of the businesses operating in these neighborhoods are undercapitalized, negatively affecting the range and quality of goods and services they can offer, and their potential for growth and job creation.

"Economic inclusion" strategies seek to address the underlying structural issues and practices, including discrimination, that serve as barriers to economic opportunity and improved quality of life for the residents of these disadvantaged communities.

Community Science Celebrates 15 years of Pasison combined with Knowledge

2012 marks Community Science's 15th anniversary, a long way from its humble beginings as the dream of David Chavis and Kien Lee. Since its founding in 1997 (in David's basement), Community Science has measured its growth and success not in increased staff or earnings, but by the impact it has had on the organizations and communities it serves.

"Our agenda was bigger than simply consulting from the beginning," David said. "We wanted to deliver high-quality work and to inform social change with the same rigor, integrity, and expectation of excellence as in medical fields and other valued areas of research."

Senior Associate LaKeesha Woods, PhD

As passionate about practice as she is about research, Dr. Woods is focused on cultural influences on the development and functioning of youth and families of color; and culturally relevant preventive interventions for youth placed at risk. That passion was recognized with her promotion to Senior Associate in 2010.

She currently serves on the evaluation team for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health (OMH) National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities (NPA), as co-project director for juvenile justice diversion initiatives and cross-cultural competency trainings for youth workers in Montgomery County, Maryland. Dr. Woods' contributions to the team and community are seen first-hand on a daily basis.

Managing Associate, Amber Golden, PhD

An evaluation specialist, Dr. Golden's current evaluation work involves providing technical assistance, project management, research and evaluation support. Her evaluation interests include community systems change, health equity, health disparities, and the theory, methodology, and practice of program evaluation. She also has research experience and interests related to the influence of social support and network influences on holistic health and well-being in youth and adults, adolescent transition to adulthood, and intergenerational communication on values, health, and identity in families.

Along with advanced training in measurement and statistics, Dr. Golden used qualitative and quantitative research methods in her work. Her training includes participation in the American Evaluation Association Graduate Diversity Internship program and the National Institutes of Health Minority International Research Training Program.

Dr. Golden also provided technical assistance and evaluation services to Communities in Schools, Inc. of Florida, and has worked internationally assessing psychosocial and social determinants of stress and chronic disease in various local populations in Harare, Zimbabwe. Her research and evaluation interests are undergirded by her experience as a clinician.

Susanna Shapiro Joins CS Team as Managing Associate

For over 10 years, Ms. Shapiro has worked to strengthen civil society organizations and grassroots movements through capacity building (technical assistance, peer learning, coaching and mentoring), community organizing, evaluation, and social change grantmaking. She is passionate about facilitating connections and trust-based relationships across cultural lines to advance economic and social justice.

As a program officer at Pact, Ms. Shapiro supervised a final evaluation for a democracy and governance program in Central America. She also provided technical and operational support to country programs in Swaziland, Lesotho, Malawi and a regional program based in El Salvador. Ms. Shapiro was also the Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Global Fund for Children (GFC), where she spearheaded GFC's first Organizational Development Handbook.

Ms. Shapiro has designed, implemented, and evaluated development initiatives in Jamaica, Ghana, India, Brazil, and Central America. She has also facilitated in national and international settings, including at multi-grantee knowledge exchange workshops and organization-wide retreats. From 2004-2008, Ms. Shapiro worked as a consultant in the World Bank's Social Development Department and the Safeguards Advisory Team. Prior to that, she served as an at-risk youth advisor in the Peace Corps/Jamaica and worked with Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) in Peru and Ecuador.

Do you want to be part of an organization of social change professionals where scientific rigor, practical solutions and progressive social values come together?

If you do, then consider that Community Science is recruiting for the following positions:

Associate in Research & Capacity Building

We've experienced growth in the past few months so we are recruiting for motivated professionals who can help us take the practice of social change through science and capacity building to a higher level. To apply, please click on a link above.

Scott Hebert New Principal Associate

We're proud to introduce Scott Hebert as a new Principal Associate. He came to Community Science from Sustained Impact where he was an Independent Consultant and, previously, 15 years of work at Abt Associates.

Scott's professional work has focused on evaluation, technical assistance and knowledge building, concentrating particularly on comprehensive community change (CCI) workforce development, and economic initiatives. He has conducted a wide range of evaluations using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. Scott served as Co-Principal Investigator for both the national evaluation of the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZEC) Program for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the evaluation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Jobs Initiative.

Associate Angel Coleman

WIth over eight years of experience combining research and practice to develop impactful community programs and policies, Angel Coleman is a new addition to the Community Science team.

Angel's area of interest is in long-term, comprehensive approaches that invest in human capital, strengthen communities and improve systems for lasting change. To that end, she has worked with community residents, small businesses, elected officials, and the media to advance strategies and policies that lead to greater impacts for the people and places that are typically underserved and underrepresented at the political and economic decision-making table.

Meet Roan Bennett, new Director of Business Operations

Behind the scenes of Community Science, recent addition Roan Bennett manages the organization's financial, contract administration, human resource management, office management, and business development functions.

CS Gives Back to Community

At Community Science, we pride ourselved in "walking the talk," especially when it comes to giving back in our own community.

On August 9, 2012, Community Science Management and associates spent the day volunteering at A Wider Circle. This 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization offers unique programs which addres the specialized needs of adults and children challenged by homelessness, poverty, substance abuse, and other hardhips.

At the organizations Silver Spring, MD center, we loaded furnitue on trucks for families to pick up, offloaded and cleaned donated furniture, sorted other donated items, and assisted with clean-up and recycling efforts throughout the warehouse.

We enjoy these hands-on opportunities to serve communities and look forward to helping A Wider Circle again.

NPA Has Launched!

Community Science responsible for National Evaluation

On April 8, 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services launched a major initiative to end health disparities with the release of two strategic plans: the HHS Action Plan to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities and the National Stakeholder Strategy for Achieving Health Equity, a product of the National Plan for Action (NPA). The two strategies complement each other: the HHS plan outlines the goals and actions HHS will take to reduce health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities and the NPA plan provides a set of goals and actions for public and private sector initiatives and partnerships to help racial and ethnic minorities and other underserved groups reach their full health potential. (see www.minorityhealth.hhs.gov/npa).

Community Science is responsible for the national evaluation and is working closely with the Office of Minority Health and other experts to finalize both the evaluation plan for the NPA as well as a plan to build the capacity of community organizations to access and use data.

Recent Presentations by David Chavis, Principal Associate & CEO, and Principal Associates Kien Lee and Scott Hebert

Keynote Speaker, "Exploring apacity Building for Community Change," The Community Change Network Workshop, July, 2012, Cincinnati, OH. David will deliver the keynote address at this critical think tank discussion around community change, including how to measure and grow community capacity for change. The workshop is part of the larger Annual International Community Development Society Conference.

The IVth Annual International Conference of Community Psychology: David Chavis and Kien Lee conducted a "Strengthening Communities" workshop and presented at a symposium called Empowerment and Human Development of Times of Crisis and Abundance, June 2012, Facultat de Psicologia, Campus Mundet, Barcelona, Spain.

Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) Community of Practice on Place-based Evaluation convening in July 2012, Washington, DC: Scott Hebert will be reporting on Mapping Funder Indicator for Place-based Initiatives and David Chavis will be presenting on Measuring Progress Toward Scale and Sustainability.

Research & Development at Community Science

Community Science has a 15 year history in the research and development of products and strategies that help develop healthy, just and equitable communities. Our current research and development efforts are focused on three important products:

* JourneyStart - a unique on-line assessment and action tool for health-related and other organizations focusing on an organization's readiness to examine its cross-cultural competency and take action. JourneyStart focuses on an organization’s policies, procedures, and practices and provides advice on how to strengthen the organization’s cross-cultural capacity, not the individuals within the organization.
* ChangeThinkers - an on-line "space" for grantees and others to share ideas and best practices, get help and find resources in order to create a learning community.
* Strength of Community Workshop and Toolkit - an assessment and action kit that builds on our internationally used Sense of Community Index-2 to help funders, government agencies, and community groups learn how strong a community they have and how to strengthen it even further.

Evaluating the Andrus Family Fund's Community Reconciliation Program

Community Science worked with the Andrus Family Fund (AFF) to assess its Community Reconciliation Program and develop a theory of change for its future work in this area.

Continue reading to find out more about Community Science’s work in developing a theory of change that AFF board and staff members will use to help analyze applications and provide clearer information to applicants about the strategies and anticipated outcomes AFF supports.

How the MAAX Program is Having a Positive Impact on the Academic Aspirations of Urban Youth

Community Science Senior Associate Dr. LaKeesha Woods is one of the co-authors of an article in the Winter issue of The Community Psychologist entitled "Creating a safe space to learn: The significant role of graduate students in fostering educational engagement and aspirations among urban youth."

Works in Progress

Building Healthy Communities: Capacity for Community Change Assessment- Community Science has been leading the research and development of the instruments and methods to assess the capacity of The California Endowment’s 14 Building Healthy Communities sites in order to benchmark and plan place based capacity building. Community Science’s role is to receive and analyze assessment questionnaires and then report the results in an easy to read and use format.

New Generation Community Change - Community Science is assisting the Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) to determine 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 culmination of this foundation wide learning process will come in January with a retreat where we expect to develop strategic options for future community change work based on evidence from the research and the practical experience of other funders.

Community Change Initiatives: Community Science at the Forefront

Community Science has long been recognized for our expertise in the development, implementation and evaluation of comprehensive community and other large systems change initiatives.

Here's a brief overview of our work on three Community Change Initiatives:

Crossroads Charlotte: Community Science is working with The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to learn about the impact of the Foundation’s grant making in Charlotte, North Carolina through a project called Crossroads Charlotte.

Building Healthy Communities: Community Science continues to work with The California Endowment on executing its strategic vision - bringing about community change in order to make measurable differences in improving the health of underserved communities and in creating environments where children are healthy, safe and ready to learn.

Next Generation Community Change: What have we learned about implementing successful CCIs? What works and what doesn't? The Annie E. Casey Foundation has contracted with Community Science to help them plan the next generation of CCIs for the foundation.

Is Your Organization Cross-Culturally Competent?

It's a tough question to answer but a necessary one if your organization is to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. For the past several years, Community Science has been researching this issue as well as working on projects that have focused on evaluating the cross-cultural competency of organizations and other initiatives.

Based on our work, including an extensive literature review, we are in the process of developing an organizational cross-cultural competency assessment, a unique tool that assesses the readiness of organizations to engage in an effort to build its cross-cultural competency and measures the cross-cultural competency of the organizations, not the individuals within the organization.

New Client: Knight Foundation

Community Science is working with the John S. and James L Knight Foundation to document and assess the impact of Crossroads Charlotte, an initiative with the goal of creating an inclusive and equitable community in Charlotte, North Carolina, by building organizational capacity for change and developing the leadership to implement change. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, Community Science's team is examining the impact of the initiative through interviews with key stakeholders and a survey of community leaders.

Introducing Our New Model: Innovating for Social Impact

We're proud to launch a five-point model called Innovating for Social Impact, which enables Community Science to work with organizations where change management is an ongoing process and finding solutions for complex social problems is an urgent mission.

In Print: Strategic Factors for Building Community

The Five C's: Community, Connections, Control, Cash, & Collective Action

First published in 2006, this Community Science publication continues to resonate with capacity building practitioners today. The Austin, TX chapter of the Community Associations Institute highlighted the article on the cover of its Q2 journal.

Out And About: CS in the Community

Last month, David Chavis was invited to speak at Collaborations in Early Care and Education:
Establishing a Framework for a Research Agenda, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
The purpose of the meeting was to construct a framework for research and evaluation regarding collaborations in early care and education.

Dr. Chavis was invited to speak at the session entitled Defining and Measuring State-Level Collaboration in recognition of his research and evaluation work in this area.

Principal Associate Ricardo Millett Speaks at the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute's 2010 Conference

In March, Principal Associate Ricardo Millett delivered the Mary E. Corcoran Endowed Lecture at the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute 2010 conference, "If Social Betterment Is the Goal, Are Evaluators Leading the Way?" Click below to read what Dr. Millett had to say.

Kien Lee Appointed to Statewide Commission on the Impact of Immigrants

Principal Associate Kien Lee was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to be part of a member Commission to Study the Impact of Immigrants in Maryland, including a study of the demographic profile, and the economic and fiscal impacts of immigration. The appointment is recognition of Lee’s work on immigrant integration for Community Science clients throughout the years. Continue to check back for periodic updates on the Commission.

NEW CLIENT: The Partnership for a Drug-Free America

Community Science to evaluate effectiveness of Parents: You Matter! for this nationally known organization

Community Science was recently hired for a 10-month engagement with The Partnership for a Drug-Free America to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the Partnership's "Parents: You Matter!" program -- a community education presentation designed to educate parents of 12- to 17-year-olds about adolescent substance abuse, as well as provide tools and resources to prevent it. For more information on this program, click here.

What Does Our Community's Growing Diversity Have To Do With Evaluation?

Like many areas of the country, Colorado's racial and ethnic populations have grown more diverse, particularly through an increase in immigrants and refugees. The Colorado Trust wanted to ensure that its grant making and evaluations continue to evolve to better serve people of myriad cultures. With that goal in mind, they engaged Community Science to help deepen their understanding about what it takes to do a cross-culturally competent evaluation.

Making a Difference: Community Science Pitches in to Help a Local Family

On March 23rd, 13 members of the Community Science team pitched in with Habitat for Humanity to give a local Maryland family a new start -- and a new home.

What's Happening: The Importance of Building and Measuring a Sense of Community

Colorado's Neighborhood Liaison Forum - David Chavis and Joy Amulya discussed the importance of building and measuring a sense of community in Colorado. Dr. Chavis has written about the five strategic factors for building community in this article and for measuring a sense of community here.

For more information about the study of a sense of community, visit senseofcommunity.com

A Murder in Broad Daylight

Greensboro, North Carolina. 1979. Five members of the Communist Workers Party, holding a Death to the Klan rally, are killed in broad daylight.The murders are captured by TV cameras, yet no one is ever convicted of the crime.

Kien Lee shares knowledge on the growing diversity of Montgomery County

Cultural diversity, intergroup relations, and immigrant integration are topics of continuing interest and exploration for Community Science's Kien Lee. She recently participated in a Senior Leadership Montgomery Diversity Day event at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. Her presentation, entitled Deevali, Mooncakes, Eid, Salsa, etc., explored what leaders need to know to lead in a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse community.

Share, Vote, Discuss + Influence

ChangeThinkers.com is a community of social change agents transforming the way ideas are shared -- not just for the causes we represent but for the way we practice and make change happen. We reconnect individuals, nonprofits and other community groups with funders and foundations to share information, from finding volunteers and crafting a great proposal to learning a new method.

Community Science welcomes new Associate Vera Miles

Community Science welcomes new associate Vera Miles

Vera Miles, MA, has recently joined our staff, bringing more than ten years of diverse experience in the mental health field in both clinical and analytical capacities. She has conducted clinical assessments, provided crisis intervention counseling and therapy, and conducted mental health intakes. On the analysis side, she implements evaluation procedures, maintains information management systems, and provides technical support. She is experienced at collecting and analyzing data for evaluations, ensuring quality and consistency of data.

David Chavis to present at the AEA Conference

Community Science's David Chavis will address ways to make a large scale impact on complex social problems in communities, when he presents at a session called Community as Context: Evaluation of Comprehensive Community Initiatives, at November's American Evaluation Association (AEA) conference.

Boosting the Impact of a Foundation

Community Science helps measure progress

How does the work of Community Science directly impact a foundation's efforts to help its grantees? We talked to Jane Mosley, PhD, Program Officer for The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City (HCF), which works to eliminate barriers to quality health care for uninsured and underserved in its service area.

The Change Agent: What particular obstacles does HCF face in working with grantees?

Jane Mosley: One of our key issues, a key obstacle, is in our ability to report on what the grantees are doing. Grantees are great at providing services, but collecting data and information to actually quantify their impact - that's a challenge for them. That's a need for them and not just for us.

To find out how Community Science is helping HCF overcome data reporting challenges, click below to read the full Q&A with Jane Mosley.

Community Science Principals Participate in National Health Disparities Plan Consensus Meeting

In 2006, the Office of Minority Health (OMH) sponsored the inaugural National Leadership Summit on Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health. A direct outcome of the Summit was the formation of the National Partnership for Action (NPA) to end health disparities for minority populations. OMH asked Community Science principals to participate in a consensus meeting to advance the NPA's first national health disparities plan, with David Chavis serving on the Evaluation Advisory Group and Kien Lee on the Implementation Planning Group.

Special ASDC Report:

The Importance of Culture in Evaluation A Practical Guide for Evaluators Cross Cultural Guide The Importance of Culture in Evaluation, a publication funded by The Colorado Trust, provides examples of where cross-cultural competency is critical in evaluation. While not intended to be the definitive answer to all questions about cross-culturally competent evaluation, it provides a good start in recommending questions and strategies that an evaluator should consider when practicing this form of competency.

Currency through Diversity

Foundations that believe in a just and equitable society must do more to address diversity and equality issues -- or risk failing in their missions.

Community Science's Dr. Ricardo A. Millett recently prepared a case study for Diversity in Philanthropy, a group committed to increasing field-wide diversity through open dialogue and strategic action to increase effectiveness and impact.

A New Model to Fight Childhood Obesity

Among the more challenging issues facing our poorest communities is childhood obesity. Marginalized communities face formidable barriers to healthy dietary habits and lifestyles including access to healthy foods and to recreational spaces for exercise.

Community Science has just completed an evaluation of a public education campaign intended to combat childhood obesity.

In The Community

Community Science's Kien Lee has been selected to the Leadership Montgomery Class of 2010. Leadership Montgomery identifies a diverse spectrum of leaders in the community and provides a forum for them to address issues and effect positive civic change.

Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee

Most children cannot imagine being forced from their homes. Today, more than 30 million people around the world have been displaced due to war and violence. Of those, nearly 10 million are children. Torn From Home: My Life as a Refugee is an exhibit that takes young audiences on an inspiring, hands-on journey into the lives of refugee children.

Enlisting a Community to Fight Childhood Obesity

Being black and poor in Washington D.C.'s Ward 8 increases the probability of obesity, particularly in young people. A 2008 Rand health study found that 71.2% of Ward 8 residents were overweight or obese, the highest rate of any Ward in the city. A survey of teens and adults conducted by the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation revealed that awareness of obesity as a health issue in the Ward is very low. The Ward also gets the lowest marks in the city for access to grocery stores, availability of community gardens and little organized community effort to educate residents to consider healthier lifestyles.

How can evaluation improve community and other systems change initiatives?

At last November's American Evaluation Association (AEA) meeting, Community Science's David Chavis participated in an invited session on the evaluation of community change initiatives (CCI’s) within their context. He reported on a Community Science study that reviewed 11 CCI’s to identify factors related to scale, scope and sustainability. He also addressed the changing landscape of evaluation. A post-session discussion sheds light on how the work of community change will evolve in 2010 and beyond.

Culturally Competent Capacity Builders: What will it take?

How are changing demographics and growing diversity affecting the nonprofit workforce? The task of helping nonprofit leaders manage diversity and, subsequently, improve their ability to comply with antidiscrimination laws, leverage differences, and practice inclusivity, requires the expertise of professionals or capacity builders, trained to help nonprofit leaders understand how diversity can lead to effectiveness.

In the Community... Excel Beyond the Bell

Supporting children and keeping them safe and engaged in a variety of out-of-school settings are goals of Excel Beyond the Bell, a partnership program in Maryland established by the Montgomery County Collaboration Council for Children, Youth and Families.

No Wrong Door

Addressing the Spectrum of Needs for Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance Helping children with serious emotional disturbances and their families requires an integrated, innovative approach to care and services. To that end, Nassau County, NY, is establishing the No Wrong Door Family Support System of Care (NWD-FSS) providing a single point of access to care for children and youth with serious emotional disturbance and their families. The program, modeled after Nassau's unique program of health and human services delivery known as No Wrong Door, represents a shift from top down medical models to a more collaborative team strategy. No Wrong Door offers a family-driven, youth-guided empowerment approach. Three accessible Family Resource Centers will offer a convenient gateway to multiple services, developed in targeted, high-needs communities.

Also In the Community... A Renewal of Support for New Americans in Maryland

In December, 2008, Governor Martin O'Malley signed an executive order to create the Maryland Council for New Americans. The council aims to help integrate new immigrants into Maryland's workforce and civic life.

Special ASDC Report

The Five C’s Strategic Factors for Building Community Have you ever wondered what would have the greatest and broadest impact on the well being of individuals, families, and communities? This brief report describes the strategic factors for stimulating community-wide health and well-being. It illustrates how each of the Five C’s - Community, Connections, Control, Cash and Collective Action - can be put together to develop an effective, broad-reaching, and sustainable community development strategy.

The Five Cs

Kien Lee, Ph.D., Community Science Principal Associate, to speak on civic engagement of immigrant seniors

The Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning is facilitating a national conversation on the civic engagement of older immigrants and refugees. We are convening practitioners and policy makers in the fields of immigration, civic engagement and aging to discuss the findings and implications of a new report entitled, Community Treasures: Recognizing the Contributions of Older Immigrants and Refugees.

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