The Improve Group Inc

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Hispanic Scholarship Fund Overview HSF “provides financial support for Latinos going to college and educates students and families about the resources available for paying for college outside of HSF.” Three current programs, the Peer Counseling, University Alliance and Rising Star programs, are proving especially effective in assisting Latino students in California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Georgia to enroll in, continue in, and graduate from college. Challenge HSF seeks to increase the number of Latino students attending and completing college through its programs. Evaluating the implementation and impact of these programs is key to understanding program effectiveness and improving program structure, fulfilling the requirements of grant funding, and meeting the Hispanic Scholarship Fund mission. HSF needed to gather information from a variety of Spanish and English-speaking constituents around the United States, including K-12 students, high school and college students and their parents, teachers, mentors and administrators, and other stakeholders. Solution From 2008-2010, The Improve Group conducted comprehensive evaluations for these programs. We designed methods to gather data using surveys, interviews and focus groups in English and Spanish. We were able to combine extensive data sets generated by the programs as they meet and work with young people with evaluation outcomes to determine which services had the greatest impact. Hispanic Scholarship Fund is using the findings to deliver more targeted services to students who would benefit from a college experience, reach out to college campuses to demonstrate the value of increasing enrollment of Latino students, and advocate to ensure continued support for underrepresented youth in higher education. Minnesota Department of Corrections Overview The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) sought evaluation services for two re-entry projects from 2007-2009. The Re-entry Success through Personal Effectiveness and Community Support Program enrolled approximately 700 incarcerated men and women in a life skills program designed to reduce recidivism and assist in the reintegration of adult prisoners. In another program, the High Risk Demonstration Project, the DOC initiated a reentry demonstration project for high risk adults. Challenge The DOC needed to document the effectiveness of these two programs, showing how the re-entry services utilized best practices and how they enhanced offenders’ transition to the community. The DOC hoped to use findings to guide decisions about what continued support to seek from State and Federal sources and what services are available to offenders before and after they leave the corrections sy stem. Solution For the Re-entry Success through Personal Effectiveness and Community Support Program, the Improve Group designed and administered a survey at four participating prison facilities. We compiled data and created a report that will be used to provide guidance about strategies used, based on performance indicators, which will serve as a guide for program replication.

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