Monitoring Services For Tribal Injury Prevention Cooperative Agreements

In 2015, TCC was awarded three SAMHSA grants focused on improving child and adolescent mental health and well-being (Native Connections, Circles of Care, and the Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant). Sundance Research Institute was awarded a 4-year contract by TCC to design and implement evaluations of these three related programs. Our approach to the evaluation of the TCC SAMHSA projects was based on our understanding that the best program evaluations are those developed and implemented collaboratively with the prime organization and participating Tribes.

The key activities conducted during the first 3 years of the evaluation included:

• Meetings with TCC’s project staff to discuss and identify all program objectives, reporting requirements, and objectives for each of the three program evaluations.
• Preparation of a detailed evaluation and data requirements plan for each of the three SAMHSA grants, including data collection requirements, sources, protocols, and instruments, and a work plan specifying activities and time schedules for data collection, analyses, and reporting.
• Preparation and submission of Institutional Research Board approval applications for review and approval prior to beginning data collection activities.
• Conduction of annual data collection, including review of TCC documents, obtaining administrative and other secondary data, conducting site visits and key informant interviews with project staff and collaborative partners, and conducting focus groups to acquire necessary information for the ongoing process evaluation.
• Assistance to TCC to meet requirements for the national evaluation.
• Preparation of annual evaluation reports that include description of all grant program activities conducted by TCC, results of qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and assessment of progress, challenges and resolutions, lessons learned, and other findings.
• Development of the outcome measurement plan/work plan for each of the three grants to align with guidelines for reporting outcome measures

Sundance Research Institute staff members have traveled to Alaska quarterly to attend meetings with TCC program managers and staff, collect data, and present progress reports and findings of evaluation activities. The project is in its final year and will conclude in September 2019.