TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2009//
TI  - Finding the Impact in a Messy Intervention: Using an Integrated Design to Evaluate a Comprehensive Citywide Health Initiative
JO  - American journal of evaluation
A1  - Weitzman, Beth C.
A1  - Mijanovich, Tod
A1  - Silver, Diana
A1  - Brecher, Charles
SP  - 495
EP  - 514
VL  - 30
IS  - 4
N2  - This article uses the evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Urban Health Initiative (UHI), a 10-year effort to improve health and safety outcomes in distressed cities, to demonstrate the strength of an evaluation design that integrates theory of change and quasi-experimental approaches, including the use of comparison cities. This paper focuses on the later stages of implementation and, especially, our methods for estimating program impacts. While the theory of change was used to make preliminary identification of intended outcomes, we used the sites’ plans and early implementation to refine this list and revisit our strategy for estimating impacts. Using our integrated design, differences between program and comparison cities are considered impacts only if they were predicted by program theory, local plans for action, and early implementation. We find small, measurable changes in areas of greatest programmatic effort. We discuss the importance of the integrated design in identifying impacts.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 1098-2140
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1098214009347555
ID  - ref1
ER  -