Welcome!
The UNC evaluation team would like to extend a warm welcome to the Round 2 grantee partnerships. We look forward to working with you in the coming months. As always, thank you to the Round 1 Grantee partnerships for your continued cooperation and support with the evaluation process.
This month’s newsletter contains information for the Round 2 partnerships regarding the evaluation process, updates on the evaluation timeline (across all sites), reminders about our Frontline Health and Healthcare Worker Surveys and how those surveys will affect you, as well as a link to the slides from our most recent Roundtable Discussion. Please read on and direct any questions to our project staff at (919) 966-6866.
As always, this newsletter is intended for you, so if you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas to make it more useful or informative, please share! You can contact our Study Coordinator, Melissa Mann at mmann@schsr.unc.edu.
New & Noteworthy
Round 2 Grantee Partnership Evaluation Process
We will begin our initial data collection process through an in-person visit with each Round 2 Grantee partnership. This initial data collection will allow us to build an understanding of the nature of your partnership and intervention, including key barriers and facilitating factors for your program. We know that you will be in the initial stages of your project. This visit allows us to get to know your project partners and understand your project plans.
Typically two evaluators will visit your partnership for two or three days, depending on the size and geographic location of your group. The visit will begin with informal meetings with the lead partner to review the evaluation process (i.e., what you can expect from us, what we need from you, and how we can help you). Then, we will conduct interviews with your key partners and focus groups with your frontline workers and frontline supervisors. During these visits, we will be on-site and interacting with staff in your organizations. We know our presence is a distraction, but will try to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Please identify someone as your Evaluation Liaison. In the initial phase, this person will be responsible for coordinating and scheduling your site visit and helping us complete the necessary paperwork (e.g., consent forms, organizational profiles). Soon after, we will work with the Evaluation Liaison to get the Frontline Health and Healthcare Worker Survey and the Jobs to Careers Evaluation Database completed for your site. Your Evaluation Liaison will work with the different members of your team to schedule the activities and arrange meeting space. Itineraries will be finalized and available two weeks prior to the site visit.
Round 2 Evaluation Site Visits POSTPONED
In response to feedback from sites fielded by both the evaluation team and the NPO, we are pushing back the baseline site visits for the round 2 grantees by approximately two months. We hope that this “lightens the load” from the Jobs to Careers roll out obligations. If you have a date scheduled for your site visit that you would like to keep, just contact our staff and it should not be a problem. We will be finalizing new dates at or after the Orlando Peer Learning meeting in late March.
Evaluation Timeline
We have completed Phase I data collections with the Round 1 Grantee partnerships, including 9 on-site visits. With this data, we were able to compile our first synthesis report. This report has been sent out to all lead partners. It was also distributed in pdf form over the email distribution list. If you have not received your copy, please notify us. This report is for internal program learning purposes only. It is not for public distribution.
We are currently in the process of implementing the Phase II data collections with the Round 1 partnerships. To date, we have completed 5 virtual site visits (all interviews conducted via telephone) have 2 additional virtual visits scheduled and 2 in-person site visits scheduled for the Spring of 2008. Simultaneously, we will be scheduling the 8 in-person site visits with the Round 2 Grantee partnerships (June through August 2008).
For more information regarding the Evaluation Process for all Grantee sites, please review the following documents:
Evaluation overview: education
Evaluation overview: employer
Throughout the evaluation period, we will be collecting quarterly data on all cohort participants through the online Jobs to Careers Evaluation Database. This is a web-based survey interface. The Site User will use the data entered to track the participants’ progress through the program and generate reports by quarter and/or year. The Site User will also be able to easily communicate any program or contact information changes for recorded participants to the evaluation team using the online Database. We are currently piloting the Database with three of our Round 1 Grantee partnerships and plan to launch to all sites by mid-Spring.
January Roundtable
Thanks to all of you who joined in the January Roundtable discussion. Your suggestions and feedback has been very valuable to the progress of our evaluation. For those of you that were not able to join us, we are including a link to the presentation: January roundtable
Gentle Reminders
Phase II Activities
We will finish our Phase II data collections with the Round 1 Grantee partnerships this Spring. If you have been contacted about scheduling a virtual site visit, please keep the following information in mind. Phase II will involve much of the same activities from the initial site visits, with a few minor changes. A member of our evaluation team will work with your Evaluation Liaison to determine an interview schedule over a two day period. We will again conduct interviews, via telephone, with key members at your site. These key members may also be asked to complete a short survey.
We will also be administering the Frontline Health and Healthcare Worker Surveys in Phase II for participating members of your cohort and any identified comparison members. Please see specific information regarding this questionnaire below.
Frontline Health and Healthcare Worker Survey
Please remember, the information we receive from your frontline healthcare workers is vital to the national evaluation of the program. That is why it is crucial for us to survey the participating members of each cohort at your site and any identified comparison members. These surveys are key in helping the entire program understand the issues and problems faced by frontline healthcare workers. Please be sure to notify our Evaluation office via email at jobs2careers@unc.edu or at 919-966-6866 each time a new cohort of participants has been selected at your site.
At that time, a member of the UNC Evaluation Team will contact you shortly before you begin your curriculum to discuss your site’s specific situation. The UNC Team member will collect your list of participating members from you and discuss with you the process for determining a pool of comparison members. Together, we will develop a plan for the dissemination and collection of the Frontline Health and Healthcare Worker surveys at your site through a designated site liaison.
Following the telephone conversation, you will receive the surveys in the mail, along with the detailed instructions developed for you. A member of the UNC Evaluation Team will be available to you throughout this entire process should you have any questions or problems with the surveys.
Spring 2008 Peer Learning Conference
The UNC Evaluation Team looks forward to seeing our friends, the Round 1 Grantee partnerships, and meeting our new ones, the Round 2 Grantee partnerships, in Florida this March for the Jobs to Careers 2008 Peer Learning Conference. Please remember to refer to the January Roundtable discussion points for the conference, listed below:
- Develop a list of the most important outcomes for your site
- Develop a strategy for collecting data to assess change
- Look for existing data sources (HR data, satisfaction surveys, etc)
- Keep learning goals realistic (short term and intermediate outcomes)
- Think about how to tell your story (highlight successes, contextualize challenges)
We need your information
Please remember, if any surveys or other evaluation information are left at your site during the initial site visit, to return that information to the UNC Evaluation Team’s office as soon as possible. Your information and opinions are important to us!
Mail them to:
Melissa Mann
c/o Jobs to Careers Evaluation
720 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. CB# 1030
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-1030
Common Questions
If you have any questions you would like our team to address in future newsletters, please submit them to Study Coordinator, Melissa Mann.