Evaluation
CSI provides evaluation services to policy advocacy and systems change initiatives. The evaluation philosophy of CSI prioritizes stakeholder participation in all stages and creating long-term evaluation capacity. CSI’s evaluation experience includes evaluating statewide systems transformation efforts in behavioral health, education, juvenile justice, and policy advocacy and change. CSI has also conducted local community and organizational level evaluations focused on systemic change and policy advocacy. For more information about the evaluation work at CSI, please contact Information@csi-policy.org and ask for Jewlya Lynn, Research Director.
Evaluation Projects
Trust Advocacy Program Evaluation (TAPE). The Colorado Trust has assembled a team of evaluators to work on their new Health Advocacy Program. CSI is participating, specifically assigned to evaluate the Colorado Rural Health Center’s new Rural Outreach and Advocacy Program. The purpose of this evaluation is to gauge the impact of advocacy investments on health policy changes that lead to increased access. This evaluation is also designed to provide a real-time feedback loop to the grantees and The Trust so that they can shift strategies as needed in response to a rapidly changing environment. The evaluation will help The Trust examine the collective impact of their funding on the state’s momentum toward health policy results and increased access.
Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health. Building Bridges is designed to build a statewide system to support and sustain the integration of public schools and local behavioral health systems that will lead to increased access to behavioral health services and improved outcomes for school-aged children. Building Bridges will integrate two complementary approaches currently in place in many Colorado communities: Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) from the education system, which is based on a preventive or public health framework, and System of Care (SOC) from the behavioral health system, which has focused on children and youth with serious mental health issues and those with co-occurring disorders. Both approaches have corresponding values and guiding principles that will drive the systems change process leading to a full continuum of behavioral health services and supports for Colorado’s students.
Colorado LINKS for Mental Health (LINKS). Colorado LINKS for Mental Health (Linking Interagency Networks for Kids’ Services) is an initiative seeking to create partnerships between state agencies and community groups working in the kid’s mental health system. The Center for Systems Integration (CSI) has been working with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and members of the LINKS advisory group to implement this initiative. Some of the key activities CSI has undertaken are statewide surveys, including a social network survey of state agencies; community meetings and youth and family focus groups across the state; action planning meetings; a guidebook; a workbook for boards on family and youth involvement, a fiscal coordination white paper and tip sheets, and a website repository of systems integration tools.
Colorado's Cornerstone Initiative. The Evaluation of the Evolution of a System of Care: A Case Study of the Colorado’s Cornerstone Initiative. Cornerstone began in 1999 through a grant to the Colorado Division of Mental Health from the federal Center for Mental Health Services. As federal grant funding ended, the Division of Mental Health commissioned a monograph prepared by The Center for Systems Integration in partnership with Christine Engleby to share what had been learned from evaluating Cornerstone during its first five years of operations. The purpose of the monograph is to offer guidance to others involved in system of care and system integration projects on how to use the information gleaned from these evaluation activities to improve their ongoing efforts.
Juvenile Information Sharing. The Guidelines for Juvenile Information Sharing, developed by the Center for Network Development, provide a roadmap to states and local communities interested in creating comprehensive juvenile information sharing systems. Colorado is the first state to implement the Guidelines and is implementing a state level initiative that will include local community pilots. As part of this effort, CSI evaluated the first year of implementation of the Guidelines.
