CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More

Technical Assistance for Data-Driven Community-Based Injury Prevention

State: CO Type: Model Practice Year: 2006

This program targeted community organizations in the Denver metropolitan area which are funded by a local foundation to address unintentional injury prevention. The goals of the program are to: 1) increase funding for unintentional injury prevention at the community level; and 2) increase the capacity of community-based organizations to create data-driven injury prevention programs to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of their work.The outcomes of the program include: 100% of agencies developed measurable objectives and implemented associated evaluation strategies for their injury prevention activities;  100% of agencies had plans in place to sustain all or part of their unintentional injury prevention activities beyond the grant period;  Over a three and one half year period, this program resulted in $1.2 million dollars being directed toward unintentional injury prevention in the Denver metropolitan area; and  Four of the seven grantees submitted abstracts and all were accepted to describe their projects at the 2005 National Conference on Injury Prevention and Control.
This program addresses a variety of unintentional injury prevention issues such as child passenger safety, child wheeled-sport safety, older adult fall prevention, residential fire safety for preschool age children, and poisoning prevention. It is important to note that one of the innovative aspects of this program is that it can be applied to virtually any public health issue, depending on community needs. This practice differs from other approaches in two primary ways: 1) Leveraged funding for unintentional injury prevention – a chronically underfunded issue – by serving as a funding intermediary between a local foundation and the community. Not only did the program receive approximately $300,000 over three and a half years to serve in this coordinating agency capacity, but it also channeled nearly $1 million over a three-year period into injury prevention programming in the community. 2) Used the agency's technical assistance role specifically to increase community capacity to use data to evaluate, improve and sustain their programs beyond the grant period. It was innovative for program staff to step out of the role of program provision and focus the work on helping other agencies maximize their opportunities to implement, evaluate and sustain their programming. More commonly, technical assistance provided by a local health department to a community organization is usually related to program implementation – not data use, program evaluation and sustainability.
Agency Community RolesTri-County Health Department’s role in this practice consisted of selecting the public health focus area for the initiative, coordinating the community grantmaking process, selecting the organizations for funding, monitoring the funded grants and, most importantly, providing an intentional plan of technical assistance to grantees with the ultimate goal that, at the end of the three-year grant period, they would increase their ability for data use and program evaluation as well as acquired skills to help sustain their activities beyond the grant period. The primary “partners” were the seven community organizations funded through the process. Throughout the three-year grant period, they provided feedback in their skill levels and interest areas of program evaluation and sustainability so that their technical assistance plan could be tailored appropriately. In addition, they were ultimately accountable for implementing, not only their funded program activities, but also the evaluation and sustainability plans they created with the agency's assistance. The other major partner was The Colorado Trust, the foundation that funded the initiative. In addition to financial resources, they provided many other supportive resources throughout the initiative that enriched the program's ability to deliver technical assistance. ImplementationGoal 1: Increase funding for unintentional injury prevention at the community level. Objective 1.1: Serve as a funding intermediary between a local foundation and community organizations interested in unintentional injury prevention. Tasks (January - February 2002): Used injury epidemiology data to help describe the need for unintentional injury prevention programming to a local foundation  Wrote proposal that was selected to serve as a funding intermediary and technical assistance provider to community organizations funded to do unintentional injury prevention programs. Proposal identified the unique skills possessed by a local health department that could be shared with community agencies in this role (e.g., epidemiology, health planning, program evaluation) Goal 2: Increase the capacity of community-based organizations to use injury epidemiology and planning techniques to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of their injury prevention activities. Objective 2.1: By June 2002, community organizations submitting grant proposals for unintentional injury prevention funding will use epidemiologic data to help illustrate the need for their proposal.  Tasks (April - June 2002): Host an Applicant Information Meeting and provide county-level injury epidemiologic data including types of injury hospitalizations and deaths by gender and age groups to interested applicants  Instruct interested applicants how to use the data in their grant proposals Objective 2.2: Between September 2002 and August 2005, 100% of funded agencies will develop measurable objectives and implement associated evaluation strategies for their injury prevention activities. Tasks (September 2002 - June 2005): Provide group training and one-on-one technical assistance on developing measurable program objectives  Provide group training and one-on-one technical assistance on developing logic models for program planning and evaluation  Provide group training on the purpose and value of program evaluation – both basic and sophisticated Objective 2.3: Between September 2002 and August 2005, 100% of funded agencies will create and implement a plan to sustain all or part of their injury prevention activities beyond the grant period. Tasks (January 2004 - August 2005): Provide group training and one-on-one technical assistance on developing sustainability plans  Provide group training and one-on-one technical assistance on developing public relations and media plans for sustainability
Goal: Increase the capacity of community-based organizations to create data-driven injury prevention programs to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of their work. Objective: Community organizations submitting grant proposals for unintentional injury prevention funding will use epidemiologic data to help illustrate the need for their proposal: Performance measures:The number of community grant applicants that used epidemiologic data in the “Statement of Need” section of their grant proposal.  Data collection: 1) number of grant applications using epi data in their Need section; 2) Tri-County Health Department coordinated the grant review process and collected the data; and 3) tallied number of proposals using data.  Outcomes (intermediate): 74% of grant applicants used data in the Need section of their proposal. Objective: 100% of funded agencies will develop measurable objectives and implement associated evaluation strategies for their injury prevention activities: Performance measures: 1) number of related trainings held; 2) number of grantees developing measurable objectives for their programs; 3) number of grantees implementing evaluation strategies as a result of the technical assistance; and 4) grantee evaluation of the TA.  Data collection: For measures 1,2,and 3, TCHD tracked the indicated numbers. For Measure 4, TCHD conducted an evaluation after each training held. Also, at the end of the three years, an outside research agency conducted key informant interviews of all seven grantees to determine their evaluation of the technical assistance provided by TCHD. Outcomes (intermediate): 100% of funded agencies developed measurable objectives and implement associated evaluation strategies. In the key informant interviews, when asked to identify which organizational capacities were strengthened as a result of TA, grantees ranked capacity to use data in reports and grant proposals the highest, followed closely by capacities for program sustainability, data collection and program evaluation. Objective: 100% of funded agencies will create and implement a plan to sustain all or part of their injury prevention activities beyond the grant period: Performance measures: 1) number of related trainings held; 2) number of grantees developing and implementing sustainability plans; 3) number of grantees sustaining all or part of their injury prevention activities beyond the grant; and 4) grantee evaluation of the TA.  Data collection: For Measures 1,2,and 3, TCHD tracked the indicated numbers. For Measure 4, TCHD conducted an evaluation after each training held. Also, at the end of the three years, an outside research agency conducted key informant interviews of all seven grantees to determine their evaluation of the technical assistance provided by TCHD. Outcomes (intermediate): 100% of funded agencies developed sustainability plans; 100% of funded agencies sustained all or part of their injury prevention activities beyond the grant; All 4 of the 7 grantees who submitted abstracts to present at the 2005 National Conference on Injury Prevention and Control were accepted; TCHD’s abstract was accepted as well; In the key informant interviews, when asked to identify which organizational capacities were strengthened as a result of TA, grantees ranked capacity to use data in reports and grant proposals the highest, followed closely by capacities for program sustainability, data collection and program evaluation.
One of the primary goals of this practice is to provide partners with the skills they need to sustain their activities beyond the scope of the grant. At the end of the grant, all seven grantees had plans in place to sustain all or part of their injury prevention activities beyond the grant period. Tri-County Health Department’s efforts in this initiative were successful. The program has managed to secure another grant from the same funding agency to partner with several of the grantees from the original initiative. The new project will focus work on strengthening the public health infrastructure around the specific injury area of older adult fall prevention. This is a five-year project with the potential of an additional $180,000 for this area. This will result in more partners joining the effort and an unknown additional amount of resources leveraged for prevention.