Learning Objectives: -understand how local program initiatives can use community indicators to evaluate progress towards workplan objectives.
Abstract: Background: The use of community indicators to guide the activity of local programs has been promoted by the California Department of Health and the American Cancer Society. Community indicators may be organized into broad priority areas associated with tobacco control goals (e.g., Promote cessation). Community indicators are environmental or community level objectives that provide a means to monitor change at the community level. Indicators represent intermediate goals of community-focused tobacco control programs (e.g., availability of behavior modification based cessation programs).
Objective: To monitor the progress of community coalitions toward annual workplan goals through the recording of ongoing major activities in conjunction with corresponding community indicators.
Methodology: Local coalitions identify specific community level measures they plan to achieve using community indicators adapted for use in New York State. Ongoing coalition activities are monitored by a Local Program Monitoring System adapted from Evaluating community efforts to prevent cardiovascular diseases (Fawcett, Sterling, & Paine-Andrews, 1995). Activities are categorized as follows: planning products, resources generated, media, services provided, community actions, community changes. Each activity is linked to one or more community indicators. Reports are generated graphing cumulative actions by activity type for each community indicator. Additional outcome indicators are also tabulated.
Conclusion: Tabulated information provide on-going summaries for regional managers and coalition leaders to use in the evaluation of workplan progress; sectors of the community reached are identified, new practices, policies and programs accomplished in the community are documented, information is easily and succinctly communicated to members and funding partners.
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