Community-based Organizations’ Capacity to Plan, Implement, and Evaluate Success

Abstract

Community-based organizations (CBOs) have the potential to promote and sustain health, prevent disease, and address health disparities, but many lack the capacity to do so. An assessment of the 20 CBOs receiving supplemental grant funding from the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative indicated a high level of knowledge for developing goals and objectives (mean score = 3.08 on a scale of 0 (none) to 4 (extensive)) and high self-assessed abilities to conduct six of 20 specific intervention activities, including the development of community relationships and coalitions. Lower knowledge and skill levels were observed for intervention evaluation. While CBOs of this Initiative have established prerequisite abilities, they have self-acknowledged needs for technical assistance to maximize HIV/AIDS prevention capacity.

Enhancing community-based organizations’ capacity for HIV/AIDS education and prevention

“…We have previously described the Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Initiative, its participating CBOs, the methods and procedures of C-PAS, and the results of the initial C-PAS (Mayberry et al, 2008). In brief, the initiative originally funded 24 CBOs in 9 southern states to provide effective HIV education and prevention programs in multicultural, rural, and urban communities for the calendar years 2004 through 2006.…”

“…All CBOs had annual budgets under $1 million. Based on the initial C-PAS, the vast majority of the CBOs had strong community bases of volunteers and established collaborations and partnerships with other CBOs (Mayberry et al, 2008). The CBOs also had established relationships with local clinics and health facilities, colleges and universities, and local churches.…”

“…In this article, we describe the impact of the efforts of a unique private–academic partnership which simultaneously conducted program evaluation and addressed the capacity needs of CBOs to plan and implement HIV/AIDS prevention interventions. The Pfizer Foundation funded, from 2004 to 2006, 24 previously established small to mid-size CBOs to provide HIV/AIDS education and prevention programs to multicultural, rural, and urban communities throughout 9 states of the southern region of the United States (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas) (Mayberry et al, 2008). The Pfizer Foundation contracted with Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (MSM PRC) in March 2004 to provide overall evaluation of the “Pfizer Foundation Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative” and to provide technical assistance to enhance the CBOs’ capacity to successfully impact the HIV/AIDS epidemic in local communities and for the entire high-prevalence southern region.…”

“…As part of its overall evaluation, MSM PRC developed and conducted an initial cross-site program assessment survey (C-PAS) of the CBOs to determine their knowledge, skills, and abilities for planning and conducting community interventions and their technical needs to be successful in their efforts (Mayberry et al, 2008). The C-PAS was conducted at 2 subsequent time periods to determine changes in knowledge, abilities, and technical needs as a result of our capacity-building efforts with the funded CBOs.…”

Strategies Used by Community-Based Organizations to Evaluate Their Locally Developed HIV Prevention Interventions: Lessons Learned from the CDC's Innovative Interventions Project

“…These meetings might have facilitated efforts by CDC project staff to review existing intervention materials, observe all aspects of the interventions as routinely delivered, gauge the capacity of the CBOs and their evaluation partners, and develop realistic project timelines. The meetings also could have further clarified the usefulness of conducting an outcome evaluation for CBO staff, thereby addressing apprehensions, possible negative attitudes, and potential resistance by staff members who may view evaluations as competing with service delivery Jolly, Gibbs, Napp, Westover & Uhl, 2003;Kegeles et al, 2005;Mayberry et al, 2008;. Although the Innovative Interventions Project was not designed as a capacity-building project, the CBO evaluation experiences demonstrated a need for this kind of support, and a training component would have been a valuable addition.…”