Available to help communities meet their local evaluation needs, as well as Federal and State requirements, local TA and training providers have made significant progress in replacing evaluation fears with skills. To help communities develop measurable outcomes, Iowa is producing a set of evaluation protocols. Other States, including Washington and Nevada, have helped communities anticipate evaluation needs by requiring them to set aside a certain percentage of their grants for evaluation support. Communities also are developing their own strategies to help overcome evaluation limitations. Using existing community-based resources, or creating their own, communities are securing the assistance they need to develop and implement evaluation plans.
Some communities choose to use a portion of their grant money to hire a local evaluator.
Others take advantage of local colleges or universities, seeking assistance from graduate students or faculty who are often willing to take on the evaluation as a collaborative research project. Still other communities recruit PPB members who possess evaluation expertise. Despite the challenges of data collection and evaluation, communities have developed and implemented evaluation plans to help them monitor change in outcomes and risk factors. And, in evaluating their efforts, communities are demonstrating that through comprehensive prevention efforts, community change can, and does, occur. The School Reentry Program in Clark County, Washington witnessed a 39 percent decrease in gang involvement in participating students from 1995 to 1998.