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

Bright Horizons: Building Program Sustainability

dHA was hired in May 2007 to provide technical assistance and training to seven community-driven health initiatives receiving multi-year funding from the Connecticut Health Foundation. The programs were developed by individuals and organizations (including churches, parent teacher groups, family centers, and programs within larger agencies). Each chose a health topic of interest, assessed the need for it in their community, and designed programs to address the identified needs. The focus of dHA's work is to develop each organization's capacity to sustain its program beyond the funding from the CT Health Foundation. The sustainability work was developed based on an assessment of the needs of the organizations, with input and support from the grant program's administrator (United Community Action for Neighborhoods in Hartford, CT). The trainings to date have included:

• Grant writing
• Financial Management
  
• Fundraising.

• Grant writing session one: program planning
  
• Grant writing session two: finding funding sources
  
• Grant writing session three: putting together your application
  
• Financial Management agenda and training session overheads
  
• Fundraising training session overheads

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

Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative

The Bridgeport Safe Start Initiative was a six year Office of juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funded project for the Center for Women and Families that focused on system change to protect children from the effects of witnessing domestic violence. In the last year of this six year project, the dHA staff took over project oversight, completion of evaluation efforts, development and implementation of a new training on effectively engagement families in social services (Family Engagement in the Real World), and development of final reports and materials into lessons learned presentations and tools for dissemination. dHA also took a role in the implementation of Bridgeport's Blueprint for young Children, as many of the BSSI lessons learned have been integrated into this plan for ensuring Bridgeport's children are ready to enter school by age 5 and ready to read by age 8.

• High Risk Brochure
  
• Low Risk Brochure
• Training Brochure
  
• Department of Children and Families (DCF) Brochure
• Family Engagement Brochure

For more information on BSSI visit www.cwfefc.org/safe_start.html

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.

Gambling Awareness of Monroe Through Educating Our Students (GAMES) Initiative

Starting in November 2000, the Town of Monroe and RYASAP (Regional Youth/Adult Substance Abuse Project) joined forces as collaborative partners in a unique community-wide program to prevent problem and underage gambling among students at Jockey Hollow Middle School and Masuk High School. Funding for the program is through the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addition Services (DMHAS), Program Gambling Services. The GAMES task force is not anti-gambling but has been committed to promoting healthy decision making by young people, especially as it relates to decisions about gambling or to participate in gambling activities. For more information on the GAMES Initiative visit www.gamesawareness.org.

In February 2007, dHA was hired to evaluate and disseminate the findings of the GAMES curricula by surveying children in Monroe and in another community to compare their knowledge of the program activities and their sense of the riskiness of gambling and participation in gambling. dHA will be administering an online survey in the Spring and Fall of 2007, and conducting focus groups in the summer of 2007 to better understand problem gambling in adolescents.

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.

To view the detailed summary of the Year One findings please click here

Find addtional information on Underage Drinking on the Too Smart to Start Website

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