Community Research & Collaboration
The Office of Community Projects provides opportunities for GCSW faculty, staff and the community to collaborate on needs assessments and program evaluations for social service agencies throughout the state of Texas. Information gathered in needs assessments supports agency strategic planning decisions, such as the HIV Community Needs Assessment, which provided consumer-based support for funding allocation decisions among HIV service providers in the Houston area. Program evaluation often begins as assistance in preparing grant proposals and continues through program implementation. Documenting program effectiveness increases practice knowledge and funding opportunities.
Phone: 713-743-8142
Needs Assessments:
- Homeless Youth Survey for Covenant House identified the changing nature of the homeless youth population in Houston, identified gaps in existing services, and defined appropriate outreach strategies.
- HIV Community Needs Assessment for the Ryan White Council provided consumer-based support for funding allocation decisions among the various HIV service providers.
- Harris County survey of mental health services for the Mental Health Needs Council helped identify gaps in services to direct funding decisions.
- A study for the Harris County CPS Fund surveyed existing services for primary, secondary and tertiary services to abused and neglected children.
- Disability Needs Assessment, Montgomery County.
- Windsor Presbyterian Church, Family Life Center Needs Assessment.
- Mayor's Anti-Gang Office, Needs Assessment East End Houston.
- YMCA International, Trafficked Persons Assistance Program-Needs Assessment & Evaluation.
Program Evaluations:
- Evaluation of Spaulding for Children’s Rural Adoptive Families in South Texas identified effective methods and practices in recruiting, training and sustaining special needs adoption.
- Community Action Partnership for Prevention evaluation helps the coalition to gauge the response of partners and the community to their services and documents activities and outcomes.
- Evaluation of Project Corazón de la Familia, a Spaulding for Children program that provides marriage education to adoptive parents in South Texas.
- Interagency Coordinating Council for Building Health Families (ICC) Evaluation Project is a multifaceted of assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of Texas’ state funded child abuse/neglect prevention and early intervention services.
Collaborations
The Office of Community Projects has been effective in building and identifying funding sources for, writing grants with, and evaluating many different collaborations throughout the Houston area. These collaborations have ranged across community based drug prevention programs, case management for sickle cell anemia, neighborhood based family services, youth violence prevention programs, a state-wide child welfare training initiative, homeless services, urban school reform, and early intervention services to prevent child abuse. Through this extensive involvement, services available to the community include:
- Training on building effective collaborations
- Facilitation services for new collaborations or those with difficulties
- Connecting organizations that wish to collaborate
- Workshops for agencies related to forming and evaluation collaborations
- Collaborative grant writing
- Evaluation services
Phone: 713-743-8145
