For more information on dHA please do not hesitate to contact the firm's principal partner, Kristin duBay Horton.

LFCRAC Subregional profile reporting

In response to a request from the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) for a data driven analysis on the impact of alcohol abuse in Sub-Region 1-1 (towns of Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan and Darien) the Lower Fairfield County Regional Action Council (LFCRAC) developed a profile and priorities report with assistance from community members. The profile describes the consumption patterns and consequences of alcohol abuse and establishes priorities to be focused on to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol abuse, tobacco use, prescription drug misuse, and illegal drug use (heroin, cocaine, and marijuana). The profile and priorities will be used as a building block for a sub-regional process that will include capacity and readiness building, strategic planning, implementation of evidence based programs, practices and strategies, and evaluation of efforts to reduce alcohol abuse.

Finding Her Voice

The program provides the opportunity for high-school-age girls from different backgrounds and cultures to work together in identifying and addressing the negative issues impacting their lives and then move beyond dialogue to take action and initiate positive change in their school and communities.

"Finding Her Voice" will be offered during the 2007-08 school year and will be conducted in three phases. In the first phase, working together in a Study Circle Experience, the young participants will explore making healthy decisions, setting goals for their futures, and addressing the emotional, social, and behavior issues confronting them along the way.

In the next phase, building on this newly gained self-knowledge; the students will create and implement action/advocacy projects targeted to other young women in their high schools. During the four-month process, a team of female students from Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University, working along with the RYASAP staff, will support the young high school students in providing technical assistance and serving as mentors.

In early spring 2008, RYASAP will involve all of the youth and adult participants in a third session to share their experiences and make recommendations about what strategies proved the most effective in mobilizing their female peers and effecting change in their schools and personal environments.

RYASAP Subregional Profile Report

In response to a request from the CT Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) for a data driven analysis on the impact of alcohol abuse in Sub-Region 1-2 (towns of Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, Trumbull) the Regional Youth/Adult Substance Abuse Project (RYASAP) developed a profile and priorities report with assistance from community members. The profile describes the consumption patterns and consequences of alcohol abuse and establishes priorities to be focused on to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol abuse, tobacco use, prescription drug misuse, and illegal drug use (heroin, cocaine, and marijuana). The profile and priorities will be used as a building block for a sub-regional process that will include capacity and readiness building, strategic planning, implementation of evidence based programs, practices and strategies, and evaluation of efforts to reduce alcohol abuse.

Courage to Speak

The Courage To Speak Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit drug prevention organization whose mission is to save lives by empowering youth to be drug-free and encourage parents to communicate the dangers of substance use to their children.

dHA will be evaluating three different interventions of organization seeking to reduce drug use by educating students and parents by testing curricula and outcomes in middle school, grammar school, and parenting programs.

Fairfield County.‘Raising the Bar’

dHA is proud to join RYASAP in a capacity building effort designed to improve programs serving girls in Fairfield County.‘Raising the Bar’ will be offered during the 2008-2009 school year and will be conducted in nine segments. Through a series of trainings, women will delve into what makes programming meet the unique needs of young women and girls, and the criteria for ‘best practice’, Trainings will be delivered in the order and way that best dovetails with the needs of the group. The series will include best practice program models, ‘nuts and bolts’ of gender specific programming, assessment tools, evaluation methods, relevant technology, program marketing, working with parents and other constituencies, cultural diversity, and organizational sustainability. Every effort will be made to appreciate the constraints of staff availability by offering in-person trainings as well as trainings via electronic modalities. For more information please review the attached application on contact Jan Laster at RYASAP (203) 579-2727

'Raising the Bar' Program Flyer
'Raising the Bar' Program Application

United Way, Schools of Hope Evaluation

In 2006, three schools were chosen by the United Way of Eastern Fairfield County to participate in a program with the ultimate goal of improving third grade reading levels and reducing the achievement gap between white and non-white students. The Schools of Hope Model was adopted because of a successful effort undertaken by the United Way in Wisconsin. In Greater Bridgeport three schools (Franklin, McKinley and Webster Schools) were selected to participate in the program with each school designing unique programs for the needs of their students. Schools of Hope programs began during the 2006-2007 school year and continued through June 2008. dHA was hired to provide an evaluation of the program at all three sites. During the second year, each of the three schools successfully accomplished many of the tasks that they had decided on at the beginning of the programs. After reviewing the various programs to date, dHA found the following themes emerging with all schools tapping into one or more of the following topics with the programs they have offered students and families: Individual student support for struggling or at-risk students; parent engagement and skill-building; increased books in the home; on-time attendance; and, special support for English Language Learners.
The Schools of Hope program has been enormously successful thus far - with marked improvements in the five indicators prioritized for changes in this effort. Each of the schools chose their own methods to improve these factors - which are demonstrated to relate to improved reading levels among young students. Each of these activities have been found to have positive outcomes on the interim measures.
In the third year of the program dHA will use standardized evaluation methods to begin to capture long term changes in those students referred into the program for help against their peers over time. Methods will include: Level of participation in school of hope activities; an opportunity to collect some data on parent engagement and sense of their ability to aid in the learning process; and scores, attendance, tardiness, and office referrals by student ID number for both the kids targeted for the school of hope activities and those not.

'Schools of Hope' Year Two final report

Bridgeport Advancing Capacity Together (ACT)

The City of Bridgeport has announced a request for organizations to submit a competitive application to receive technical assistance and capacity building sub-award funds. Organizations must currently provide services or are looking to expand to provide services to Bridgeport residents who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

The City of Bridgeport is the intermediary organization for this project in partnership with The WorkPlace, Inc., The Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, the United Way of Eastern Fairfield County, the Compassion Capital Fund and duBay Horton Associates.

For more information on the application process, please contact the Council of

Churches at 203-334-1121.

Program Application

Drug Free Communities Evaluation Projects

dHA is currently contracted to provide evaluation services for four drug free communities initiatives in Connecticut. Since 1997, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), have been directing the Drug-Free Communities Support Program which is an anti-drug program providing grants of up to $100,000 to community coalitions that mobilize their communities to prevent youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug, and inhalant abuse. For more information go to www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/dfc/index.html

Evaluation services being provided by dHA range from developing methods to meet national requirements (collecting four core measures) while matching local concerns, development of focus group protocols, survey tools and providing training and technical assistance for local groups. Training materials for local groups have included trainings on social marketing, program evaluation, and community assessment. dHA staff provide both process and outcome evaluation efforts for these funded programs. For more information on these activities please don't hesitate to contact dHA kdubayhorton@dhassoc.net

Taking Charge: Choose the Right Path

The Lower Fairfield County Regional Action Council (LFCRAC) has contracted with dHA to evaluate Taking Charge, a multiple session curriculum designed to enable at-risk teens to identify negative influences and make positive decisions. dHA developed evaluation tools, which include a pre-curriculum questionnaire, a post-curriculum questionnaire, and a follow-up questionnaire for participating teens, as well as an evaluation tool for facilitators to monitor adherence to the curriculum. dHA provided training to the curriculum facilitators in the use of the tools, and will perform analysis of the data gathered from the evaluation tools.

Fairfield University School of Nursing ELDER Project

Fairfield University's School of Nursing received grant funding to identify best demonstrated practices and to develop and pilot a training curriculum for nurses working with the elderly. dHA has been contracted to analyze secondary data, develop a focus group protocol, and conduct focus groups with nurses and aides who work with elderly patients in nursing homes, community-based health centers, and with home health agencies. From these groups, dHA will develop recommendations for the training curriculum, and will provide technical assistance for evaluation tools used in the training sessions, including pre/post meeting evaluation tools and journaling review tools.

Bridgeport Health Improvement Partnership

dHA worked with members of the Bridgeport Health Improvement Partnership to analyze and publicize findings of the first ever city-wide assessment of the health needs and concerns of Bridgeport residents. Two surveys were conducted: a phone survey of 1204 residents and an in-person survey of 320 residents. The results were analyzed and presented at a press conference on March 29th and at the city's health fair on April 3rd.

Trumbull Partnership Against Underage Drinking

In September 2006 the Town of Trumbull applied for support from the CT Dept of Mental Health and Addiction Services for funds to support environmental efforts to reduce drinking among Trumbull adolescents. The Town of Trumbull competed successfully in this grant process and received $66,000 per year annually – renewable for up to three years to better understand and plan efforts to reduce underage drinking.
In the past, the Town of Trumbull sought to address the ongoing problem of teen alcohol use and binge drinking through Trumbull CARES: The First Selectman's Prevention Council. Trumbull CARES has worked with Trumbull Public Schools and the PTA to fund activities that promote positive youth development and help to reduce risky behaviors by primarily building internal assets. Despite Trumbull CARES membership in RYASAP, the local Regional Action Council, and numerous activities targeted to promote positive decision-making, there has not been the desired reduction in the rates of alcohol use among teens in the town. Several factors have hampered the efforts of Trumbull CARES – the lack of comprehensive, qualitative data as to the causal factors contributing to the high rates of teen alcohol use, the lack of a cohesive planning process to address the community needs, and insufficient financial resources to address the problem more aggressively.

The Trumbull Partnership Against Underage Drinking recognizes that while they have a range of data detailing teen alcohol use, there is very little data on the “why”. What is required is more intuitive, qualitative data that will reveal what is influencing Trumbull teens’ perceptions of risk and what influences their decisions to use alcohol. As such, Trumbull proposes to devote some of their planning time to conducting qualitative data-gathering efforts, primarily key informant interviews and focus groups with community members, parents, and students, which will enable them to more thoroughly understand the causal and environmental factors that are peculiar to Trumbull teens. This information will also be instrumental in Trumbull ’s efforts to identify the best ways to change community norms. For this effort the city of Trumbull has contracted with a Bridgeport based public health consulting firm (duBay Horton Associates) to conduct focus groups, key informant interviews and community meetings to gather information on underage drinking in Trumbull, it’s causes and potential strategies to reduce it.

Strategic Planning for a Local Health Department

In the Fall of 2005 dHA was contracted to aid the Bridgeport Department of Health and Social Services (BDHSS) in development of a strategic plan. This work included secondary data analysis, key informant interviews with staff, funders and community partners, and input at several community meetings to both inform and gather information on community needs from the general public. The combination of primary and secondary data has been used to generate a final report and presentation and recommendations to the Health Department. If you would like to discuss strategic planning needs, or the tools used for this report, please contact dHA at nchanana@dhassoc.net