This approach builds the research capacity of the organization and facilitates the implementation of evaluation recommendations. Recently, funding agencies have placed an increased emphasis on the process outputs and tangible outcomes of community interventions. This has necessitated a sophisticated approach to tracking initiatives and their impact in the community. Progress toward program goals is evaluated by quantitative data, and complemented with qualitative information generated from interviews and community forums. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the center, I enhanced my own research skills with techniques from other social sciences.
Community organizations post monthly crime maps on the Internet for local residents to view.
These research skills can be generalized to a wide variety of information gathering needs that may be encountered in future settings. I have also used these skills within the university. For example, a faculty member and I developed a Skills-Experience Inventory as an efficient instrument to assist in the evaluation of academic skill development. College students may only have vague notions about how their education will help them in future careers, and may not recognize the development of marketable skills in areas such as critical thinking, communication, information gathering and synthesis, research methods and statistics. This project provided feedback on skill development to individual students in relation to their career goals, enabling them to better market themselves to employers.