TMG Archives - The Measurement Group

Evaluation, Pandemics, and Running a Small Business

March 25, 2020 By Lisa Melchior Leave a Comment

Greetings from my home office! The last few weeks have brought unprecedented change to our world. We plan to re-launch this blog and share posts on a variety of topics related to our evaluation work, the programs we work with, the populations they serve, as well as assorted random thoughts about who knows what.

The AEA365 blog posted recently about the role of evaluation during a pandemic. Among other things, the piece stressed flexibility and responsiveness. I can’t agree more. I’d also stress keeping communication going in these difficult times.With the help of IT Support Clayton it is easier. Our work is primarily with community-based health, behavioral health, and social service providers. They are having to re-design their services on the spot – working to maintain connections and support for their clients while keeping their staff safe and healthy. Because community programs are focused on responding to the crisis, addressing evaluation concerns isn’t necessarily their highest priority. We are reaching out to our clients to let them know we are here for them and offering whatever support we can. And, it’s an opportunity to check in and evaluate whether we need to adjust our evaluation designs or implementations. For example, are our evaluation protocols working given new modes of service delivery? Do we need to adapt any of our procedures?

In terms of running this small business, we are fortunate – we can continue to do our work remotely without much interruption. But the logistics bring some challenges. Being able to just bounce something off one another takes a bit of planning (picking up the phone or messaging), rather than just walking across the hall in the office. On the plus side, though, we get to work surrounded by family and furry companions.

Be well,

Lisa

Position Available: Program Evaluation/Research Assistant

March 4, 2018 By Lisa Melchior 1 Comment

Image courtesy of mrpuen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The Measurement Group LLC (TMG) has an immediate opening for a full-time program evaluation/research assistant in its Culver City, CA (Los Angeles Westside) office.

The Measurement Group is a consulting firm with 30 years of experience specializing in program evaluation for health and social services. We help clients in both the public and private sectors document their activities and programs, record outcomes, assure the quality of their services, and improve quality. Our clients include community based organizations, federal and state healthcare agencies, and private philanthropies.

Research assistants work directly with senior PhDs and other professional evaluation staff on project reports and presentations, including policy reports, scientific publications, and presentations at professional meetings. Duties include assisting with data collection, entry and cleaning; coding of qualitative data; basic quantitative data analysis; word processing; and general office support. Depending on qualifications, duties may also include additional data management and statistical analysis and travel to client meetings and conferences. Although the exact mix of projects is subject to change, current projects that TMG research assistants work on include: an evaluation of a program for young adults age 18-25 affected by substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and other health-social problems; evaluations of community-based programs designed to eliminate health disparities; and other treatment and prevention programs for vulnerable populations.

This is an excellent opportunity for individuals who wish to gain applied research experience and benefit from professional development opportunities before returning to graduate or professional school. Dozens of previous TMG research assistants have pursued advanced study (PhD, MA, MPH, MD) in fields such as public health, psychology, social work and medicine at prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, USC, UCLA, Columbia and UNC.

Applicants with a BA/BS in Psychology, Sociology, or other Health or Social Science field and one or more years of relevant experience (which can include undergraduate experience working in related research) are strongly encouraged to apply. We are looking for someone who is detail-oriented, able to multi-task, and has strong organizational skills. Bilingual English/Spanish preferred. Proficiency with standard office computer applications (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, etc.), as well as software for statistical analysis (SPSS) is desirable. This position involves a mix of (1) data collection with young adults with substance abuse and/or mental health issues and (2) office work performing program evaluation and other office support tasks. The ideal candidate is a self-starter who works well both independently as well as with others in a team.

Competitive salary, company-paid healthcare plan, standard vacation and holiday schedules.

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to info@themeasurementgroup.com.

Time flies…or what’s been going on at The Measurement Group

December 1, 2015 By Lisa Melchior Leave a Comment

ID-10040313 — Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I really didn’t mean for this much time to go by since my last blog entry in May. My colleagues and I at The Measurement Group have been busy with a number of interesting projects. For example:

We recently completed a five-year evaluation of the Los Angeles Integrated Add Us In Consortium, led by the Integrated Recovery Network. This project was funded by the US Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The Los Angeles Consortium created and implemented a successful model for helping people with primarily mental health disabilities to gain “soft skills,” connect with employers, and gain and maintain jobs that match their abilities and interests. Across the five-year project period, the Los Angeles Consortium helped its clients — many of whom are homeless and dealing with mental illness — in successfully obtaining 193 jobs! It was an incredibly rewarding experience to work with this group and help them document and share their outcomes.

Since earlier this year, we have been working with Arizona First Things First on the evaluation of an online developmental screening program they have implemented in three regions. We’ve interviewed a number of stakeholders to understand issues that they encounter in providing developmental screening to families with young children (0-5 years). In particular, we’ve been learning about the successes and challenges they’ve had in using an online screening tool. We continue to gather and share information with our colleagues on this project to help inform their future developmental screening strategies.

These are just a few highlights of the work we’ve been doing in recent months. In addition, life got busy with high school graduations, family trips, and transitions with my son starting college. So, blogging took a back seat for a while. But with lots of news to share, I will be returning to active blogging soon…if not now, then I’ll make an early new year’s resolution?

Some of my professional influences in evaluation

May 28, 2015 By Lisa Melchior Leave a Comment

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

An evaluation blog that I follow, aea365.org, had a recent post by Liz Zadnik about her professional influences and inspirations in evaluation. Reading Liz’s post got me thinking about some of my own influences over the years.

First of all, I am grateful for the mentorship of George J. Huba, PhD – my partner at The Measurement Group for 23 years. Back in the day, George started TMG from his kitchen table. Shortly after securing our first contract, I joined him in this exciting venture. Even though we both had professional training and experience in social science research methods (he much more than I), we learned a lot over the years about translating that into doing evaluation in the real world with programs that serve vulnerable populations. I learned from George’s ability to take results from complex analyses and turn them into straightforward, bottom-line recommendations for health, mental health, and social service professionals. George’s high standards set a bar for my work that I continue to strive for. Now a “retired evaluator,” George is currently a social media force to be reckoned with, blogging at www.hubaisms.com and tweeting prolifically as @DrHubaEvaluator.

My list of professional influences would not be complete without Vivian B. Brown, PhD. Dr. Brown, an accomplished community psychologist and founder of Prototypes (retired), was an early adopter of program evaluation, back when very few community treatment program administrators really understood the value of collecting data to demonstrate their outcomes. I have many fond memories of meetings with Vivian and George where we would brainstorm about evaluation questions, ways to disseminate our findings to the field, or how to use the information from our evaluation work to improve services for the women and children in Prototypes’ outreach, prevention, and treatment programs. One of the most important things I take from my work with Dr. Brown is to always be cognizant of the burden of collecting data from program participants, especially with respect to asking sensitive questions and the context in which they are asked.

Before I became an evaluator, I was trained as a research psychologist. So what made me want to do that in the first place? Jonathan M. Cheek, PhD was my undergraduate advisor at Wellesley College. There was something about doing research with him that sparked my interest. It struck me as something that certainly wouldn’t be boring. I have always appreciated the opportunities I had early in my career as an undergraduate to conduct and publish psychological research in several articles and book chapters. And although my work in personality research was a long time ago, it’s been exciting to see a renewed interest in the study of traits (for example, Susan Cain’s excellent book “Quiet”). My background in individual and group differences has certainly influenced my approach to evaluation — realizing that it’s not only whether a program is effective, but for whom and in what circumstances.

There are many more influencers and inspirations than I can acknowledge in this blog post. So, I’d like to think of this as the start of an occasional series and I look forward to giving a shout out to the rest of you in the future.

National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day

April 10, 2015 By Lisa Melchior Leave a Comment

April 10 is National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day. I’m blogging today to show support for this important initiative. According to aids.gov, “National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day is an annual observance that takes place on April 10 to educate the public about the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people and to highlight the work young people are doing across the country to respond to the epidemic.”

I’ve had the privilege of working with a number of programs on the cutting edge of services for and by young people living with, or at risk for, HIV/AIDS. In the 1990’s, a group of 10 youth-focused programs were funded as Special Projects of National Significance by the Health Resources and Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau. In my role as one of the investigators in a cross-cutting evaluation of that initiative, I learned about the innovative work by these programs and the way they helped to empower young people — especially at a time when today’s treatment options were not yet widely available. It’s rewarding to see that a number of the programs that we worked with are still thriving and continuing the work that was started all those years ago.

What did we learn about HIV/AIDS service models for youth?

Looking back, what are some of the things we learned that might inform HIV and AIDS services for young people today? One thing that stands out is the use of empowerment models that were used by many of these programs. We reflected this theme in our evaluation by using an empowerment evaluation approach, providing extensive training and technical assistance in program evaluation to the young adults who staffed these programs — a number of whom have since gone onto successful careers in public health and non-profit management. Of course, I’m certain I learned more from them than they did from my colleagues and me (aka those of us with “letters after our names”).

Our evaluation findings, as well as papers from each of the programs in the initiative, were published in a special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. As we stated then, “One of the most important factors in the model’s success is that youth and professionals share an equal partnership in all stages of program design, planning, and implementation.” We also pointed out that “active case management is crucial, not only to ensure that clients receive needed services, but also to ensure that the programs themselves run in a coordinated, tightly linked way. Given needs of adolescent clients and existing adult-oriented service networks, the use of active case management and the active participation of youth in the services system are critical.”