Archive for the ‘areas of expertise’ Category

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Repair the World Host Site Study

Monday, February 21st, 2011

Repair the World, a national organization that seeks to make service a defining element of Jewish life, learning and leadership, commissioned BTW to conduct an exploratory study on the impact of short-term immersive Jewish service-learning (IJSL) on communities served by IJSL programs.

While a number of studies have been conducted on the impact of service projects on individual participants, BTW’s 2010 study is one of only a few that focus on the impact of service projects on the communities they serve. The study included interviews with representatives of host community CBO/NGOs involved in IJSL projects in the US (New Orleans, Miami and Los Angeles), Israel, Nicaragua, Ghana and Ukraine as well as an in-depth review of recent relevant research and writing about best practices in secular and faith-based service learning.

BTW found that when IJSL projects are well planned and executed, negative impacts are anticipated, and potential problems are addressed proactively, then positive impacts for host communities predominate.

Posted in areas of expertise, faith-based, Service & Volunteerism | No Comments »

PACE Promise

Monday, February 21st, 2011

A partnership of the San Marcos Unified School District (SMUSD), Cal State University, San Marcos (CSUSM) and the Leichtag Family Foundation, PACE Promise aims to focus students and their families on college at an early stage, prepare students for the rigor of college work and improve access, retention and college completion for underrepresented students.

In spring of 2010 BTW worked with PACE Promise to create a theory of change to refine their program strategies and develop an evaluation plan that will demonstrate the program’s impact over time.

Posted in areas of expertise, education | No Comments »

Jewish Student Union

Monday, February 21st, 2011

The Jewish Student Union (JSU) is a national organization that aims to enhance the Jewish identity of Jewish teens in public high schools in the United States. JSU’s program model achieves this goal by creating an engaging and appropriate in-school educational experience that is delivered by program coordinators to Jewish teens in public schools.

BTW is currently working with three national and regional funders to assess the program and organizational growth of JSU’s staffed program model, focusing on its existing program in Chicago and expansion to public schools in Denver, South Florida, and Westchester/Connecticut. The first stage of this work was the development of a theory of change that describes JSU’s purpose, strategies and outcomes and serves as a framework for the program’s evaluation.

Posted in areas of expertise, children & youth, faith-based | No Comments »

Interfaith Youth Core

Monday, February 21st, 2011

The Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) is a Chicago-based social change organization that is building a movement of young people from different faiths who work together to apply the core value of service to others. In fall 2010 IFYC launched the “Better Together” campaign at colleges across the US to inspire interfaith dialogue, cooperation and action on campus.

BTW is working with IFYC to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign and identify the key factors that lead to success on a campus as well as assessing the personal and leadership development of campus campaign leaders.

Posted in areas of expertise, faith-based, leadership, Service & Volunteerism | No Comments »

UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access

Monday, February 21st, 2011

BTW was commissioned by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) to assess the effectiveness of using their annual reports and deliverables to create greater awareness and action about education reform in California. As a research institute, IDEA provides research and policy analysis tools so that stakeholders can take action with legislators and other state leaders.

The evaluation will focus on investigating the extent to which IDEA’s recent outreach efforts galvanized key stakeholders and strengthened public engagement to invest in a public education system that ensures access for all students, specifically around the goals of:

  • improving the understanding of the recession’s impact on California’s K–12 schools;
  • contributing to statewide conversations about the importance of data-driven decisions in education; and
  • highlighting the need to plan for finance policy reform.

Posted in areas of expertise, education | No Comments »

Jobs for the Future

Monday, February 21st, 2011

BTW was commissioned by Jobs for the Future to research effective state and institutional policies related to developmental education for adults. BTW is developing case studies of high-performing community colleges in key states, and will produce an overarching policy research brief on effective state and institutional policies to support a data-driven improvement process for states.  The goal is to understand how to promote effective education policies and practices in order to improve the success rates of students who begin in developmental education.

Posted in areas of expertise, education | No Comments »

California Community Foundation’s Health Care Grantmaking Efforts

Monday, February 21st, 2011

The ultimate goal of The California Community Foundation’s (CCF) Health Care Program is to improve access to a regular, sustainable source of quality health care among low-income and vulnerable children and adults in Los Angeles County.

Since launching a 10-year strategic plan in 2006, the Health Care Program has invested more than $16 million in grants to over 85 organizations to advance its priorities. CCF has commissioned BTW to evaluate the effectiveness of the Program’s investments in community since 2006 and the Program’s overall progress in advancing towards its strategic goals. CCF is particularly interested in learning about its progress toward improving clinics’ organizational capacity, service delivery capacity and Healthy Kids health insurance enrollment and retention efforts.

The findings generated from the evaluation are intended to promote learning and reflection among CCF staff and stakeholders and enhance the Program’s ability to achieve and measure impact.

Posted in areas of expertise, health | No Comments »

The Walton Family Foundation

Monday, February 21st, 2011

The Walton Family Foundation supports projects and organizations that are making a positive difference for individuals, communities and the environment through its investment in three focus areas: systemic K–12 education reform, freshwater and marine conservation, and quality of life initiatives in the Foundation’s home region, including the Delta region of Arkansas, Mississippi and Northwest Arkansas.

The Walton Family Foundation has engaged BTW specifically around its policy and advocacy grantmaking efforts within the education reform portfolio. BTW is partnering with the Foundation to develop a framework that clarifies the expectations for its policy and advocacy investments, including specific outcome measures linked to key strategies. In addition, BTW will help create a process and tools to help the Foundation and its grantees measure the impact of their work.

Posted in areas of expertise, education, Policy Development & Advocacy | No Comments »

The David & Lucile Packard Foundation

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

Conducting ethical research and evaluation requires taking extreme care to protect the rights of research participants. As a private foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is not legally subject to the federal laws that governing human subjects protections in research. However, given that much of the Foundation’s work addresses the needs of the most vulnerable children and families, the Foundation wants to ensure that the rights of individuals involved in Foundation-supported research and evaluation are appropriately and fully protected.

To this end, the Foundation asked BTW to help increase Foundation staff knowledge about ethically sound research. BTW developed a set of resource documents that provide information on what human subjects protection is and include flowcharts and guidelines on how to spot and address potential ethical issues in proposed projects. BTW then trained Foundation staff on how to use these tools to ensure ethical research and evaluation in their grantees’ work.

Posted in areas of expertise, organizational capacity | No Comments »

HIRE LA’s Youth, Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

HIRE LA’s Youth, a division of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, prepares youth to earn and retain entry-level employment. Their multi-step Work Readiness Certification (WRC) process helps youth improve their resumes and job skills and includes a job application process and mock interview with real employers.

HIRE LA’s Youth asked BTW to assess the impact of a WRC certificate on job attainment for youth. We surveyed nearly 2,000 WRC participants about their employment history and demographics, as well as their ideas on how HIRE LA’s Youth could better support youth employment.

The evaluation findings support HIRE LA’s Youth’s hypothesis that early exposure to labor market experiences can lead to increased educational and earnings attainment.

Posted in areas of expertise, children & youth, Workforce Development | No Comments »

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