Asthma Program Evaluator

Evaluation Questions Checklist

Virtually all evaluation guidance materials stress the need for good evaluation questions, yet the evaluation literature generally has provided only broad guidance on developing them. To help get to good questions–questions that are likely to lead to actionable evaluation findings–we created a checklist for use in assessing potential evaluation questions. The list is grounded in the evaluation literature and has benefitted from the practice wisdom of many evaluators inside and out of CDC. 

Finding the Right People for Your Evaluation Team

Broad stakeholder engagement is an essential element of the National Asthma Control Program’s approach to evaluation. People who have been included in evaluation planning and implementation are more likely to help ensure that the findings, which represent an investment of their time, are put to use. And so it follows that the evaluator is but one member of a team of people necessary to make the most of your evaluation.

Cultural Competence Assessment Tool for State Asthma Programs and Partners (CCAT)

We have created this packet to help you think about how to build your evaluation team. It includes a sample job description for an evaluator; a list of evaluator competencies; and sample letters for recruiting members of your strategic and individual evaluation planning teams.

With ever-growing diversity in the United States, cultural competence for all public health programs is an ethical imperative. The Cultural Competence Assessment Tool for State Asthma Programs and Partners (CCAT) is a practical resource designed to promote and enhance cultural competence among our many asthma partner organizations. Based on the Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Service (CLAS) Standards, the CCAT is a self-assessment tool designed to guide programs in assessing the cultural competence of their own programs. Using a flexible, team-based approach, programs use the CCAT internally, with the aim of identifying program strengths and areas for improvement in cultural competence.

ABSTRACT:

Poor quality housing is an ongoing environmental injustice placing a significant burden on low-income and minority families. The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative (GHHI) in Baltimore, MD, grew out of the historical healthy homes work of the Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, an organization dedicated to using housing as a platform for health to ensure environmental and socialjustice for families and children in low-income communities. GHHI’s Healthy Homes Demonstration Project utilized the standards and practices created by GHHI: A Holistic Housing Assessment coupled with environmental health education and combined as an integrated environmental health and energy housing intervention for children with asthma, ages 2–14. The project braids resources from healthy homes, lead hazard reduction, weatherization, and energy efficiency projects to form a single multi-component, multi-factorial intervention. Findings from the health surveys at intake and six months after the intervention provide evidence of the impact on the reduction of asthma symptomatic episodes, emergency room visits, and hospitalizations, while showingimprovementsin school attendance and parents’ work attendance. Findings will provide evidence that improved health outcomes and more stable and productive homes in primarily African American, low-income neighborhoods are related to the mitigation of asthma triggers and home-based environmental health hazards. Upstream integrated housing interventions are an effective means to improve health, economic, and social outcomes for children diagnosed with asthma.

Our Childhood Asthma Initiative,
By the Numbers

Check out our CALM infographic, which details the successes and strategies the Foundation and our grantees developed to reduce the burden of childhood asthma in Missouri.