Research and Evaluation
Community and economic development
Evaluation of Creating Entrepreneurial Communities Program
Principal Investigator: Laurie Van Egeren
Funder: MSU University Outreach and Engagement
MSU Partners: Community Evaluation and Research Center; MSU Product Center; MSU Museum; MSU Extension; Center for Community and Economic Development; University Outreach and Engagement; Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education; Department of Psychology
Community Partners: Small Business Technology and Development Centers; Edward Lowe Foundation; Michigan Economic Development Corporation; Michigan Department of History, Arts, and Libraries; Center for Rural Entrepreneurship at the Rural Policy Research Institute; nine Michigan communities
Project Description: Creating Entrepreneurial Communities (CEC) is a training and support program designed to increase economic vitality through the development of community systems of entrepreneurship. Through a competitive application process, nine Michigan community teams were selected to participate in a week-long training through the Energizing Entrepreneurs Institute and to be assigned community coaches who will support their efforts for one year. The evaluation is designed to examine the effects of the training and support in enabling communities to take successful action. In addition, social network analysis is being conducted to monitor increases in connections and resource knowledge and use.
Please contact Laurie Van Egeren for more information
Evaluation of Yes We Can!, a Comprehensive Community-Building Initiative in Battle Creek
Principal Investigators: Pennie Foster-Fishman, Department of Psychology; Laurie Van Egeren
Additional CERC members: Miles McNall, Nicole Greenway
Funder: W.K. Kellogg Foundation
MSU Partners: Department of Psychology; Community Evaluation and Research Center
Community Partners: W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Non-Profit Alliance; City of Battle Creek; Battle Creek Community Foundation; community grantees
Project Description: Yes We Can! is a long-term comprehensive community-building initiative. The program is designed to decrease the gap in educational and economic outcomes for low-income residents by increasing resident mobilization and developing collective action. Strategies include community organizing, a small neighborhood grants program, training and technical assistance, and organizational grantmaking. The evaluation team is monitoring systems change and using participatory methods to assess changes in immediate, intermediate, and long-term outcomes. Data collection is both qualitative (interviews, focus groups, photovoice) and quantitative (community phone survey, leader survey, organizational survey, large-scale randomized community survey, mini-grant database analysis).
Please contact Laurie Van Egeren for more information
Increasing Technical and Evaluation Capacity in Mayor's Time
Principal Investigator: Laurie Van Egeren
Additional CERC members: Tomuel Scott
Funder: Mayor's Time, through grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the Skillman Foundation
MSU Partners: Community Evaluation and Research Center
Community Partners: Mayor's Time; Thomas Kelly Software Associates; Detroit Public Schools
Project Description: Many community-based youth-serving organizations lack the technical capacity to collect data for evaluation and sustainability. This project provides technical assistance and training on EZreports, a Web-based attendance tracking system, that can provide organizations with data to present to stakeholders and funders and use for program improvement. Data is then linked to school achievement information to assess relations among site characteristics, activities provided, and school outcomes.
Please contact Laurie Van Egeren for more information
Living Communities Project
Principal Investigators: Tomuel Scott; Jason Almerigi
Additional CERC members: Jessica Barnes
MSU Partners: Community Evaluation and Research Center; Center for Community and Economic Development; Land Policy Institute
Funder: University Outreach and Engagement
Project Description: The Living Communities project is a two-stage community revitalization effort that is designed around physical spaces. The first stage, which occurs during the renovation of old and construction of new physical spaces, is a mentoring and training internship program for at-risk youth who are of working-age. It provides hands-on training and experience for construction-related jobs. The second stage is the physical spaces that will be designed around community-identified needs. These spaces will consist of living arrangements designed to facilitate a customizable set of social services provided to resident individuals and families. Currently, the project is in the process of identifying university and community partners to develop locations, facilities, target populations, and intended outcomes.
Please contact Jason Almerigi for more information
Promising Practices for Youth Development
Principal Investigator: Laurie Van Egeren
Additional CERC members: Celeste Sturdevant Reed
Funder: High/Scope Foundation, from a grant funded by the W.T. Grant Foundation
MSU Partners: Community Evaluation and Research Center
Community Partners: High/Scope Educational Research Foundation
Project Description: High/Scope is conducting a study of the effectiveness of the Youth Program Quality Assessment, a feedback model of self-assessment and coaching to improve after-school program quality. As part of this research, CERC is conducting an analysis of staff processes to assess the implementation and use of the training program.
Please contact Laurie Van Egeren for more information
Systems Change in After-School Programs to Affect Childhood Obesity Rates
Principal Investigators: Miles McNall; Laurie Van Egeren
Funder: Mayor's Time, through a grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
MSU Partners: Community Evaluation and Research Center
Community Partners: Mayor's Time; United Dairy Association; Detroit Public Health Department
Project Description: This evaluation examines the implementation and programmatic and systemic outcomes for a health and nutrition curriculum provided to organizations within the Mayor's Time network of youth-serving organizations, most of which are community- or faith-based. The evaluation is looking at organizations' use of the curriculum and increases in provision of health-focused activities, changes in students' attitudes and knowledge about making healthy food choices, and systemic changes in normative structures, resources, regulations, and operations across the Mayor's Time system.
Please contact Miles McNall for more information
Volunteer Support Infrastructure and its Impact on Volunteerism in Michigan
Principal Investigator: Miles McNall
Funder: ConnectMichigan Alliance, through a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation
MSU Partners: University-Community Partnerships; Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement; Department of Psychology
Community Partners: ConnectMichigan Alliance
Project Description: The goal of ConnectMichigan Alliance (CMA) and its partners is to make a quality volunteer opportunity available for every Michigan resident through universal access and volunteer support infrastructure, where we live, work, and learn. To that end, CMA is developing an evaluation system to ensure universal access for Michigan's residents to quality opportunities to serve in their community. CERC is working with CMA and other partners to evaluate the infrastructure support system for volunteer-serving organizations and to facilitate the collaborative development of an evaluation system that these organizations can use to monitor outcomes.
Please contact Miles McNall for more information
