Social Service and Nonprofit Program Evaluation
Microbusiness Development
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Local Agricultural Community Exchange (LACE)
project is a private sector
community revitalization project, central to the rejuvenation of downtown Barre City, Vermont.
LACE opened its doors in June 2007 with a Farm Fresh Market, Café, and an artisan vendor
space to provide a direct connection between the community and farmers and artists.
Serving the needs of the area’s micro and small businesses, LACE features local produce and products.
With the assistance of partner agency Central Vermont Community Action Council (CVCAC),
LACE’s facility is being renovated to include a commercial, shared-use kitchen to enable home-based producers
to expand their production and increase sales. Training and counseling through CVCAC’s micro business development
program will be available to vendors in sales techniques, marketing, pricing, production, business operations, and business
plan development as needed, and classes will be available in ServSafe certification to those using the kitchen facility.
All of these strategies will result in increased employment
through business expansions as well as new business start-ups. The evaluation of this project focuses on process and outcomes measures,
to determine best practices, the impact of services, and the development of a replicable model. Evaluation methods
include surveys and focus groups with stakeholders. Three year evaluation. (Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Jane Kolodinsky.)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Post Start-up Micro Business Training and Technical Assistance project is statewide,
carried out by the regional partnerships of Vermont’s Community Action Agencies and their Micro Business Development Programs.
This project provides technical assistance and business support to established micro businesses.
The evaluation of this project focuses on process and outcomes measures, to determine best practices,
the impact of services, and the development of a replicable model. Evaluation methods include surveys and focus groups.
Three year evaluation. (Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Jane Kolodinsky.)
The Northeast Center for Food Entrepreneurship (NECFE)
A collaborative effort of the New York State Food Venture Center at Cornell University and
The Center for Food Science at the University of Vermont. The mission of the project is to
provide comprehensive assistance to beginning and established food entrepreneurs thus promoting
sustainable economic development of rural communities. NECFE offers services, outreach and research
development opportunities in four critical areas: business and product process development, product
safety, process/product technology transfer and product commercialization. Evaluation focuses
on process and outcome measures with emphasis on impact of NECFE and how this Center can be a
transferable model. Data collection methods include surveys, focus groups with staff and clients,
review of organizational documents, and case studies of client experience and success.
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/necfe/.
Three year evaluation.
(Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Jane Kolodinsky)
Domestic Violence, Department of Justice
Spectrum: Youth and Family Services, Burlington, Vermont.
The Domestic Abuse Education Project (DAEP) is designed to provide participating men with
information and skills needed to change abusive and violent behavior and beliefs. The
overarching goal of the "Kidsafe" component of this project is to reduce abuse and improve
the lives of children and partners by educating men who batter in Northern Vermont
(Chittenden County). Evaluation focuses on examining attitudinal changes in participants
through the use of a pre and post test and conducting focus groups with partners of
participants to determine impact of the program on the lives of family members. Three year
evaluation.
(Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Fred Schmidt).
Chittenden County Domestic Violence Task Force
Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Spectrum: Youth and Family Services, Burlington,
Vermont. The Rural Domestic Violence and Child Victimization Grant of
Chittenden County Domestic Violence Task Force
focuses on the impact of domestic violence services in Chittenden County,
specifically rural areas. Evaluation methods include questionnaires, focus groups with service
users and project administrators, and analysis of data collected from organization. Eighteen
month evaluation (refunded through March 2009).
(Michele Cranwell Schmidt).
Education, Literacy and Economically Disadvantaged Families
Department of Education. The Even Start family literacy program works with low-income families in
Southern Vermont (Windsor County) to better prepare low-income children and their parents for
success in school, community service, and life. Evaluation examines inputs and outputs of
program activities, including adult and early childhood education, parenting education, and
parent-child interaction. Evaluators are working with state and local staff to implement
indicators of program quality for outcome measurements. Evaluation methods include periodic
surveys, focus groups, and data analysis. Eight year evaluation.
(Michele Cranwell Schmidt and Fred Schmidt).
The Vermont Millennium Arts Partnership
An internet-based arts education
program in Vermont public schools that, through the use of the latest technologies, is working to
facilitate student learning through an online exchange among students, teachers, artists, musicians,
and other professionals. Evaluation documents project process and outcomes of classroom
participation in the online forum and related classroom activities. Evaluation methods include
online surveys, workshop evaluation, and focus groups and interviews with project administrators
and project participants.
http://www.vermontartscouncil.org/vtmap/index.html.
Three year evaluation. (Michele Cranwell and Fred Schmidt).
YouthBuild, Burlington
A HUD-funded project,
modeled after a very successful national program of
the same name and designed to assist at risk youth between the ages of 16 and 24 years.
The program provides educational/classroom assistance toward the achievement of GED’s and high
school diplomas as well as onsite training in construction. The goal is to provide job skills
to the youth who are typically high school dropouts, and then to assist the participants in
finding appropriate jobs. The CRS has evaluated this program since it began in 1998 and we
utilize a series of focus groups, staff discussions, questionnaires, demographic analysis to
contribute to an annual evaluative report
(Michele Cranwell and Fred Schmidt).
Restorative Justice
For the Youth Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Spectrum: Youth and Family Services, Burlington,
Vermont. The mission of the Restorative Justice for Youth Program is to reduce delinquency by
providing timely and meaningful pre-charge interventions to youth who commit petty crimes in Northern
Vermont (Chittenden County). The evaluation focuses on the project's outcomes and success in meeting
grant goals, including accountability and change in attitude and desire to provide restitution
towards their actions. Evaluation methods include data analysis, pre and post test, and satisfaction
questionnaires. Three year evaluation.
(Michele Cranwell and Fred Schmidt).
AmeriCorps Northeast Kingdom Initiative evaluation project
The NEKI AmeriCorps service project began in 1994 and targeted three counties in the Northeast
Region of Vermont. Approximately 24 AmeriCorps volunteers located at sites dispersed throughout
the Kingdom provide residents with services in the areas of technology, education, and health.
Although the formal CRS role in this project was concluded in 1997, the CRS continues to assist
through recruitment and providing guidance to annual program evaluations.
(Fred Schmidt and Michele Cranwell).
International Development
Partners of the Americas (POA)
-
Vermont-Honduras Farmer-to-Farmer Project. POA carries out technical assistance
projects between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean. POA volunteers conduct
projects in civic education, emergency preparedness, health, natural resource management, leadership
development and other areas while building cross-cultural understanding throughout the Western
Hemisphere. Founded in 1964, POA is a private, non-profit organization chartered in DC and
registered with the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid of the Agency for International
Development (AID). Currently 60 partnerships involve 45 states with approximately 33 Caribbean,
Central and Latin American nations.
The Vermont-Honduran Partnership
This effort is over 25 years old and has involved
thousands of Vermonters, including UVM faculty, staff and students.
Recently the Center hosted a visit from Keith Andrews, Director of Zanmorano, Honduras
International College of Agriculture (private) seeking greater curricular and research collaboration for a new
imitative of theirs involving students in community outreach. Laura Durham, Sarah
Oppenheimer (CRS intern) and Fred Schmidt led 13 volunteers from the
University community and from Sterling College to Honduras in May, 1999 to help repair
and rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Mitch. "Homes for Honduras" is a project sponsored
by the Center for Rural Studies, the Farmer to Farmer Project of
the Vermont Honduras Partnership (POA).
In the summer of 2002, CRS staffmembers traveled to Honduras with the support of the Vermont-Honduras POA to
engage residents in the InfoRural project and teach information technology
skill development and develop e-commerce tools. See the Vermont/Honduras
Collaborative Projects Site. (Fred Schmidt, Michele
Cranwell, Thomas DeSisto, Meaghan Murphy, Will Sawyer, and Thomas
Patterson, CDAE)
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Last Updated 07.20.07