Center for Community Engaged Evaluation

The Center for Community Engaged Evaluation is situated within the UAMS Institute for Community Health Innovation and specializes in evaluation of large and small community health programs, workforce development programs, and behavioral and policy interventions.

The center includes expertise in areas such as food systems, family wellness, and implementation science.

We have a strong record of participating in successful regional and national projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the National Institutes of Health; the Department of Health and Human Services; the Health Resources and Services Administration; and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; as well as many large and small private funders.

Our interdisciplinary team provides process/implementation evaluation, formative evaluation, outcome evaluation, policy analysis and proposal development.

The Center for Community Engaged Evaluation works with clients to do the following:

• Measure the alignment of services and activities with community needs and priorities
• Center evaluation within cultural contexts
• Articulate the “how” and “why” of interventions and develop tools such as logic models and theories of change
• Develop high-quality evaluation plans tailored to the needs of funders, program staff and participants
• Build evaluation capacity within organizations and communities
• Implement and manage performance measurement for grants
• Apply evidence-based methods for data collection and analysis
• Synthesize findings into high-quality reports and data visualizations tailored to client and community audiences
• Develop and implement dissemination plans
• Develop scientific publications and presentations

Advancing health through community-engaged evaluations

The mission of the Center for Community Engaged Evaluation is to partner with organizations seeking to reduce health disparities in communities by designing and implementing high-quality evaluations of their programs and policies.

Our evaluations engage communities and clients by collecting, analyzing, and sharing lessons learned.

Empowerment: Commit to processes that equip and empower whole communities.

Humility: Approach every project with the acknowledgment that community members and leaders know their communities best.

Integrity: Establish processes that allow us to authentically communicate the voices of community members to our clients.

Respect: Embrace each voice and recognize the value of every client, team member, community member, and community leader.

Collaboration: Partner with clients and other research and evaluation organizations to continue to learn, grow and produce our best work.

To learn more about the Center for Community-Engaged Evaluation, email Jessica Presley at JPresley@uams.edu.