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The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.

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In this section HFRP offers new and noteworthy resources on the evaluation and development of community-based initiatives.

Publications

Freedman, P. (2003). What makes a solution? Lessons and findings from Solutions for America. Charlottesville, VA: University of Richmond. This report summarizes the themes and lessons from Solutions for America, an initiative of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. www.pew-partnership.org

Govinda, R., & Diwan, R. (Eds.). (2003). Community participation and empowerment in primary education. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This volume presents case studies of initiatives launched in five states in India. www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=9604

Howard, C., & Molina, F. (2003). Final report on the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative: Lessons and implications for future community employment initiatives. New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation has published this third and final report on the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative, an effort to raise employment levels in poor communities to match those of the broader metropolitan region to which they belong. www.mdrc.org/publications/341/full.pdf

Huston, A. C., Miller, C., Richburg-Hayes, L., Duncan, G. J., Eldred, C. A., Weisner, T. S., et al. (2003). New Hope for families and children: Five-year results of a program to reduce poverty and reform welfare. New York: Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. This is a summary report on a demonstration program in Milwaukee designed to raise employment and income levels in low income neighborhoods www.mdrc.org/publications/345/overview.pdf

Lasker, R. D., & Weiss, E. S. (2003). Broadening participation in community problem solving: A multidisciplinary model to promote collaborative practice and research. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 80(1), 14–60. The authors present a model for integrating the research and experience of colleagues working across various fields of study.

Murphy, P. W., & Cunningham, J. V. (2003). Organizing for community controlled development: Renewing civil society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This book offers a comprehensive community-building model that can inform community activists, urban planners, and policymakers. www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=9175

Sabo, K. (Ed.). (2003). Youth participatory evaluation: A field in the making. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. This volume discusses the numerous ways of improving evaluation by incorporating youth as researchers and evaluators. www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787970743.html

White, S. A. (Ed.). (2003). Participatory video: Images that transform and empower. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This book examines the role that participatory video can play in community development. www.sagepub.com/book.aspx?pid=9603

Organizations, Initiatives, and Useful Resources

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now supports and builds community organizations serving the interests of low- and moderate-income families. www.acorn.org

Association for the Study and Development of Community. (2001). Principles for evaluating comprehensive community initiatives. Gaithersberg, MD: Author. This report provides practical guidance for evaluators of comprehensive community initiatives. www.capablecommunity.com/pubs/NFCVP062001.pdf

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Place-Based Philanthropy Initiative focuses on improving the lives of disadvantaged children and their families by concentrating on the specific needs of specific communities. Through its free Place Matters newsletter, stakeholders can broker ideas and read about place-based efforts around the country. To learn more about the initiative and to subscribe to Place Matters, visit www.aecf.org/initiatives/pbp.

Living Cities: The National Community Development Initiative began its second 10-year phase in 2002. The second phase devotes more attention to the 23 participating cities, provides greater support to CDC intermediaries LISC (the Local Initiatives Support Corporation) and the Enterprise Foundation, and contributes further to national urban policy. For more information on the initiative’s development and agenda, see www.livingcities.org.

The Urban Institute’s National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership (NNIP) teams with local partners to develop neighborhood-level information systems for use in influencing policy. Learn more about NNIP and view a list of recent publications at www.urban.org/nnip.

The Rebuilding Communities Initiative (RCI) Toolbox, available from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, highlights the challenges and lessons gleaned from this seven-year, five-city initiative. www.aecf.org/publications/data/overview_doc.pdf. For a report on the evolution of organizational development within RCI, see www.aecf.org/publications/data/od_paper_final.pdf.

Seedco has produced the following two reports based on the Community Development Technology Initiative, an effort to evaluate and improve the use of information technology in community building:

Southern Echo is a grassroots community-leadership organization that relies on the talents of both youth and adults to build and support leadership in low-income and African-American communities. www.southernecho.org

The National Community Building Network serves as a locus of information and support for locally driven community-building efforts nationwide. www.ncbn.org

The Aspen Institute’s Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families is a forum for those involved in community building to discuss and disseminate information. www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.612045/
k.4BA8/Roundtable_on_Community_Change.htm
. The Roundtable offers a variety of community building resources including:

  • The Community Building Resource Exchange, an outgrowth of the Roundtable that lists numerous publications and provides information on a wide range of community-building-related topics. www.commbuild.org
  • Measures for Community Research, a database housing a collection of measures and descriptions of primary data collection instruments. www.aspenmeasures.org
  • An online bookstore offering definitive publications on the development, implementation, and evaluation of community initiatives. www.aspeninstitute.org

New Resources From HFRP


The first two publications in our new series, Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots, are now available:

The Snapshots can be read or downloaded online or hard copies can be ordered. 

We have added two new evaluation reports to our website.

  • Lessons in Evaluating Communication Campaigns: Five Case Studies examines how communication campaigns with different purposes have been evaluated. It offers a discussion of theories of change that can guide evaluation planning, along with five case studies of completed campaign evaluations. 
  • Evaluation’s Role in Supporting Initiative Sustainability offers ideas for how evaluation can help ensure that a discussion about sustainability begins early and is maintained throughout an initiative. The ideas in this paper are based on our broad spectrum of experience in the past two decades with large-scale initiatives. 

The Family Involvement Network of Educators (FINE) has published a new bibliography of family involvement research, which includes journal articles, books, and dissertations published from January to August 2003. 

Tezeta Tulloch, Publications Assistant, HFRP


Space is limited in the print version of The Evaluation Exchange. When we have to trim an article to fit in the print version we present the full original version as part of the online version of the issue. You can sign up to be notified by email when the latest issue of The Evaluation Exchange is available online.

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