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Past Events & Event Resources
Needs Assessment Workshop,
Before You Start, and Beyond: The strategic importance of
needs assessments for programs
and services, and methods for implementation, April 11, 2008
This workshop demonstrated
from soup to nuts considerations for each stage of a needs assessment.
We’ll
also reflect on the pros and cons of using internal resources vs.
inviting an outside consultant. Attendees gained an understanding
of the importance of a needs assessment and its relationship to
planning as well as an understanding of methods for conducting a needs
assessment. Specific Topics & Activities Included:
- Why
conduct a needs assessment?
- The
relationship to project planning and the difference between assessment
and evaluation.
- The
essential question of needs assessment
- Who are
your participants?
-
Politics and other possible obstacles
- The
Needs Assessment Process: Data collection: preparation, logistics,
resources needed
- Data
collection methods: interviews, focus groups, surveys
-
Analyzing your needs assessment data
-
Reporting your results and wrap up
SAS Skills Training: Introductory, Intermediate, and Advanced, February 23, 25-27, 2008
Read the flyer
with more information describing the workshops.
OPEN-Sponsored Brown Bag Discussion, Promoting
Behavioral Change, January 10, 2008
Mike Riley presented on Promoting Behavioral Change.
The discussion covered the use of research techniques for measuring
public opinion and the steps necessary for impacting change. Key topics
and case histories involve driving the adoption of environmentally
responsible behavior will be discussed. This presentation was
originally presented to the North Pacific Regional Conference of the
Public Relations Society of America in San Francisco.
Mike Riley is the Research Director of Riley Research (RileyResearch.com)
and a graduate of Oregon State University. His background is in
quantitative study design, and all phases and techniques of qualitative
studies. Additionally, Mike is past-President of the Oregon Chapter of
the American Marketing Association.
OPEN-sponsored
Brown Bag, Using
Logic Models, November 15, 2007
The high utility of logic models was
explored by facilitator Kari Greene. Ms. Greene covered how to
integrate logic model use into evaluation activities, and she shared
some logic model examples, a logic model plan, and varied
resources related to logic modeling. This brown bag was aimed at
attendees with some logic model experience, and participants had the
opportunity to share their own logic models and the challenges,
successes and frustrations they have had using a logic modeling
process.
OPEN-sponsored
Brown Bag with Michael Bamberger, September 27, 2007
RealWorld Evaluation: Conducting Evaluations under Real-World Budget,
Time, Data and Political Constraints
This
was one in a series of monthly brown bag discussions, organized by
OPEN, aimed at providing a forum for the dissemination of evaluation
tools and techniques. This was a no host lunch, and participants were
encouraged to bring their lunches to this discussion.
Brown
Bag Hand-out:Conducting Evaluations
under Real-World Budget, Time, Data and Political Constraints
OPEN-sponsored
Brown Bag, Understanding and influencing adolescents: 3 Common
Mistakes, September 13, 2007
This
was one in a series of monthly brown bag discussions, organized by
OPEN, aimed at providing a forum for the dissemination of evaluation
tools and techniques. This was a no host lunch, and participants were
encouraged to bring their lunches to this discussion. Discussant Andrew
Robinson presented methods for understanding and influencing
adolescents. His primary focus is on optimizing the influence of adults
in the lives of adolescents. Andrew notes, “I speak the language of
program people but can serve as a translator between the researcher and
the program. My role with clients is typically to help them prepare for
evaluation and/or translate their evaluation results into actionable
solutions. Too often research findings remain dormant and aren't used
to make programs more effective.” Mr. Robinson currently works with
organizations to optimize the effectiveness of their efforts to
positively influence adolescents. His evaluation and monitoring
services are designed to strengthen the connection between the people
delivering the message and the adolescents receiving the message. Prior
to starting his own evaluation group, Mr. Robinson was a Marriage and
Family Therapist and a director of a nonprofit that worked with
adolescents. More information about Mr. Robinson can be found at ARobinsonConsulting.com
OPEN
poster session at the Healthier Communities through Action and Research
conference, July 19, 2007
This
conference is coordinated by the Northwest Health Foundation. OPEN
collaborated on this conference, Northwest Health Foundation 3rd
Community-Based Participatory Research Conference (CBPR), geared towards community organizations,
academic research and teaching faculty, public health officials,
funding organizations, and policy makers. This was the first time OPEN
and the Northwest Health Foundation \collaborated, and this sponsorship
allows OPEN to spotlight, honor and celebrate our local evaluators and
researchers.
OPEN-sponsored student
Happy Hour,
July 10, 2007
At
this Happy Hour at the Bridgeport
Brewing Company, students learned about the opportunities
for students to receive
training as program evaluators and also network with other students and program evaluators
in the community. In addition,
students were provided with information about upcoming summer and fall events.
OPEN Brown Bag Presentation, July 12, 2007
During
Presentations to
Community-Based Stakeholders: Sharing Strategies that Work, discussant Tanya Ostrogorsky covered
strategies used in communicating
evaluation results to community stakeholders. She used her varied experiences at the
Portland State
University, Regional Research Institute, and her current work
at the Oregon Health and
Science
University
School of
Nursing. Ms. Ostrogorsky encouraged attendees to bring samples of what has
worked in their own evaluation settings
for use in the discussion.
Portland SAS Users Group (PDXSUG) Meeting, June 11, 2007
The annual PDXSUG
Meeting was held in downtown Portland, located at the Standard Center Building. Along with two speakers, the
event had door prizes (including SAS books) and information on upcoming
SAS events. See Flyer
Introduction
to OPEN and the Evaluation Field, May 15, 2007
An
introduction to OPEN and to evaluation as a job field. This event was
geared towards students and featured a variety of speakers sharing
their career paths in evaluation. For this session, program evaluation
was defined as the use of research to measure the effects of a program
in terms of its goals, outcomes, or criteria.
Electronic
Medical Records for Surveillance: The CDC Immunization Datalink Project, May 15, 2007
Brian Hazelhurst (of
Kaiser) presented at Oregon Health and
Sciences
University.
SAS
Training with Renu Gehring, May 10, 2007
Renu Gehring
delivered a training session on SAS (a statistical database program).
The training focused on SAS loops, functions and macroprocessing with
examples from hospital discharge data. Ms. Gehring is Managing Partner
at Ace-Cube, LLP, has an undergraduate degree in economics and history
from
Mount
Holyoke
College and a graduate
degree in economics from
Brown
University.
In addition to working for several economic, research and marketing
consulting companies, she has worked for and consulted with
corporations such as Fidelity Investments and Nike, Inc. Her key
strengths include statistical analysis, economic valuation, as well as
end-to-end management, analysis, and reporting of large and complicated
data sets using SAS. Ms. Gehring is a SAS Certified Professional, with
over 12 years programming experience.
Brown Bag:
Portland-based Research Analysts, May 10,
2007
This event was
cosponsored by the Oregon Public Health Association, Epidemiology- Biostatistics section. Portland is home to many public health
research analysts and evaluators employed by varied governmental
agencies, and this brown bag event will allow them to meet each other
and learn more about the research conducted by their colleagues.
Brown Bag Luncheon on
Independent Evaluation Consulting, March 15, 2007
Independent Evaluation
Consulting was the topic of the fall 2006 issue of New Directions
for Evaluation, a journal of the American Evaluation Association.
OPEN is one of the oldest affiliates of the American Evaluation
Association. At the brown bag, consultants had the chance to meet each
other at an informal setting. Attendees enjoyed lunch while making
contacts and learning about the work of other local evaluation
consultants.
Related links: American Evaluation Association
and American Evaluation Association New Directions for Evaluation
What
is Evaluation?, March 14, 2007
The
annual student event at Portland State University was geared towards
students, and featured a variety of speakers sharing their career paths
in evaluation. For this event, program evaluation was defined as the
use of research to measure the effects of a program in terms of its
goals, outcomes, or criteria.
The Oregon Health Policy and Research
Collaborative (OHREC)
March meeting theme of evaluating the safety net, March 13, 2007
Rachel Gold, PhD,
MPH (Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, formerly of OHSU
Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine) presented: Conducting
Research in the OCHIN Practice Management Data: Opportunities and
Examples.
Robert A. Lowe, MD,MPH (
OHSU
Center for
Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine) presented: What Does
Emergency Department Data Tell Us About the Safety Net? The Canary in
the Coal Mine.
OPEN hosted the American Evaluation Association annual conference,
Evaluation 2006: The Consequences of Evaluation, in
Portland October
30-November 5, 2006
OPEN/SAMHSA Diversity/Cultural Competency Workshop: Improving
the Quality of Culturally Competent Evaluation in Federal Health and
Human Services Grant Programs,
Portland
State University, September
8, 2006
Dr. James Herrell and colleagues from the US DHHS
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) discussed the
criteria SAMHSA uses to assess proposals for evaluations involving
culturally diverse populations, including recent changes in these
criteria such as greater emphasis on standard data collection, with
possible implications for local evaluations. The discussion addressed
topics including the approaches SAMHSA has found to be most effective,
challenges in assuring appropriate protection of human subjects from
diverse populations, and navigating the Institutional Review Board
process. The teleconference presentation by SAMHSA was followed by
questions and open discussion.
Current
Topics in Statistics for Applied Researchers Workshop July 17-20, 2006
The
School of
Nursing at
Oregon Health
& Science University designed and hosted a
workshop for researchers interested in updating and improving their
statistical knowledge in order to strengthen the design and analyses of
their research.
Mid-Valley Workshop Brownbag, May 25, 2006
The OPEN Mid-Valley Cluster,
in cooperation with the University of Oregon Institute on Violence and
Destructive Behavior, hosted "Conducting evaluations with budget, time
and data constraints: Doing the best you can with available resources,
" with Michael Bamberger Ph.D.
at the University
of
Oregon,
901 East 18th
Avenue in Eugene.
Effect Size and
Power Analysis, May 23, 2006
Dr. Nancy Perrin, statistician and
professor at Oregon Health and Sciences University, presents a two-hour workshop
for evaluators and researchers. The workshop focuses
on how many times you may have written a sentence like, "Although
program participants performed better than the control group, the
difference was not statistically significant." Perhaps, you needed a
sample size four times larger and did not realize it. A member of the
Program Committee, Michael Bamberger, recently pointed out that many
evaluations are doomed from the start, if the criterion is statistical
significance, because it is impossible for the results to show such a
difference given the sample size.
Social Event, May 23, 2006
Meet for a social and networking
opportunity following Nancy
Perrin's workshop! Light refreshments and cash bar provided. Parking is available
behind the Pub, in the parking garage opposite the Multnomah Building,
or on the street. We will have
available, for your comments and suggestions, copies of a draft
resource document: "Networking Information on Evaluation Resources in
Oregon and the Northwest". If you are unable to attend the presentation
by Nancy Perrin, but would like to take advantage of this opportunity
to network with fellow evaluators, we'll meet you at the Lucky Lab.
Annual OPEN Student Event, "Program Evaluation
101: What You Need to Know," May 11, 2006
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