So in a past blog post we asked for introductions from you, the OD2A Evaluation Community. While we received a few responses, we would love to learn about more of you! Just five quick questoins.
- First the Basics: Your name, role, and your state?
- What challenges are you facing in your current role?
- What lessons have you learned?
- Is there anything you would love to hear more about from your colleagues?
- Do you have any hopes or expectations from this community in terms of format, lessons, or tools?
Just share your responses in a comment, or send an email to [email protected]. We will pull the responses together in collections and share them just like we are doing in this post.
John Bartkowski and Caroline Newkirk
Your name, role, and your state?
John Bartkowski, Lead Evaluator, Mississippi; Caroline Newkirk, Associate Evaluator, Mississippi
What challenges are you facing in your current role?
The original project timeline needed to be adjusted due to PDMP-related award deliberations between CDC and the MS Board of Pharmacy. COVID-19 has created additional implementation challenges, further complicating timeline issues.
What lessons have you learned?
Regular videoconferencing has been critical to fostering significant progress. We are proud of the progress our team has made in the face of various obstacles. Among other examples of progress, we are in the process of providing subawards to communities to support the implementation of local prevention activities and communication strategies. A project team lead developed an excellent RFP for the subgrantee application process, and we generated an application rating matrix that is comprehensive and constructive for applicants. We have also make significant progress on a pilot project that we believe will significantly enhance referrals to treatment for pregnant and parenting women. Movement on other fronts (EMS data enhancement, greater SBIRT utilization) has also been evident.
Is there anything you would love to hear more about from your colleagues?
We always welcome hearing about effective evaluation strategies, particularly in the face of COVID challenges. It is also our understanding that several states have wrestled with OD2A PDMP expectations, as has Mississippi. Peer sharing among such states could be helpful.
Do you have any hopes or expectations from this community in terms of format, lessons, or tools?
We are excited to learn from everyone in the community. We are happy to share our insights and tools while being informed by the insights and tools of others.
Jan Fields
Your name, role, and your state?
My name is Jan Fields. I am the program evaluator for the Michigan Overdose Data to Action (MODA) program. I am also the coordinator for this community of practice.
What challenges are you facing in your current role?
The main challenge that I am facing as a program evaluator is not having the necessary tools to do my job well. Addressing that challenge means not only convincing my organization to procure those tools, but also motivating myself to sufficiently learn to use them. It can be unnerving to learn something from scratch and then be expected to be proficient at it!
What lessons have you learned?
Still, I’ve learned new tools in the past with minimal trauma and I expect to be able to do so again (an example of lessons learned, I suppose). I would love to hear from others in this community who have either already mastered some of these tools or are equally excited about adding new tools to their evaluation repertoire.
Do you have any hopes or expectations from this community in terms of format, lessons, or tools?
My hope for this community is that it engages people who are united by a similar passion for evaluation and yet are diverse enough to provide a wide variety of perspectives. My expectation is to do everything I can as a coordinator to allow this to happen.
Chris Lysy
Your name, role, and your state?
Hello my name is Chris Lysy.
I am an independent evaluator/designer living in NC. My role on this project is to help support the growth and development of this community of practice.
What challenges are you facing in your current role?
My biggest challenge right now is in learning more about the people included in this community. It’s the most effective way I know to create valuable digital things.
Do you have any hopes or expectations from this community in terms of format, lessons, or tools?
My biggest hope is that this community will grow into a true learning community, with all of you sharing your collective wisdom and supporting one other in this important project.
Your name, role, and your state?
I am Stephen Tregear. I am the Program Director for the OD2A Cross-Site Evaluation being performed under a contract with CDC. The purpose of the cross-site evaluation is to learn about how OD2A recipients are working to implement and evaluate prevention activities. My team is also charged with performing a cross-site outcomes evaluation. At this time our focus is on the implementation evaluation.
What challenges are you facing in your current role?
Creating relationships across the recipient community. I had hoped to introduce my team to you at the OD2A Recipient’s Meeting. Unfortunately, due to the cancellation of the meeting this was not possible. For our evaluation to be successful it is very important that we develop collaborative relationships so that we can learn from your experiences.
What lessons have you learned?
We have only just begun so we have nothing to report just yet. We have begun the implementation evaluation by collecting data from the Work Plans, Evaluation Plans, and APRs submitted by each recipient. To add context to the contents of these documents, we are planning a number of primary data collection efforts (interviews, focus groups, etc.) once we obtain clearance to do so from OMB.
Of course one of the major confounders to implementation is COVID-19. To understand how COVID-19 has impacted your programs, we are planning to interview up to nine jurisdictions to learn how the pandemic has impacted implementation; however, we do not want to burden jurisdictions at this time and are hoping that things will have settled down a little by August/September.
Do you have any hopes or expectations from this community in terms of format, lessons, or tools?
Yes. I am very excited to be a member of a community of professionals who are doing such important work.