Research & Evaluation Archives - Page 7 of 8

3 Apr, 2013

Tackling Teen Pregnancy Prevention: A Comparison of Solutions

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:08:47-04:00April 3rd, 2013|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: activism, Youth|0 Comments

(Image from Teens in New York City Protection+ app, by of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene)

Since the New York City Human Resources Administration launched its “Think Being a Teen Parent Won’t Cost You?” campaign aimed at lowering the city’s teen pregnancy rates a month ago, the campaign (and its ads that are now featured at city bus stops and inside the subways) has been under fire locally and nationally. I’ve been one of those vocal opponents of the messaging of this campaign, and together with the New York Coalition for Reproductive Justice, the No Stigma! No Shame! Campaign began in response to the HRA.

This week, I happened to notice a local news report on a new phone app developed by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, aimed to not only reduce the numbers of teen pregnancy in the city (which has dropped to around 30% within the past decade) but to also show teens where to go for information on birth control, condoms, and testing.

Piquing my interest, I downloaded the app to test it out. I also signed up for the HRA’s texting game by texting “NOTNOW” to 877877 to compare the two. I don’t have to tell you that the outcomes were VERY different.

Here are my observations: (more…)

21 Nov, 2012

Program Monitoring & Evaluation: Leveraging Your Strengths and Smoothing Out the Hiccups

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:00:07-04:00November 21st, 2012|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Capacity Building|0 Comments

Overwhelmed? You don’t have to be!

(image source)

You’ve figured out the Who, Why, When, Where, What, What For, and How of your program or workshop. You know what it means to be S.M.A.R.T. about your goals. You’ve tested out creative ways to get your objectives across. Finally, you’ve considered gathering feedback during your activity implementation. If you haven’t done any of this yet and would like to know more about how to do this, check out the four proven ways to increase the effectiveness of your program and workshops, and come back to this blog post.

If you have read it and/or have implemented some of the strategies I mentioned above, great! I hope that you found them useful, whether you are a seasoned nonprofit professional or someone who wants to provide meaningful programs and workshops for your community. Now it’s time to get to the second part of the equation. Let’s shift the focus to a separate but equally important issue: finding out if what you’re doing is actually effective.

So, how do you do figure out if what you’re doing is effective? You monitor and evaluate. Monitoring and evaluation are the best tools in your arsenal that can show you are moving in the right direction, or if you’ve hit a snag somewhere. Here’s a breakdown of each one, how they work together, and five key things to keep in mind when monitoring and evaluating your program or workshop so that you can continue to leverage your strengths and smooth out your hiccups (because we don’t believe in weaknesses!)

Monitoring and Evaluation: What Are the Differences?

Before we get into the differences between monitoring and evaluation, here is why each element is important: (more…)

3 Jul, 2012

Participate in My 1 Year Blog Anniversary Contest! (CLOSED)

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:49:47-04:00July 3rd, 2012|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Announcements|0 Comments

UPDATE: The contest is now closed! The winners are Twitter users @TIngram and @parisianfeline! Congratulations!

I started blogging in July 2011 to share my perspective on sexual and reproductive justice, advocacy, and policy and how it impacts Black, Latina, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Native/Indigenous women & girls.

Blogging has really been a means to an end: To promote my consulting services. To be transparent, throughout the past year, I’ve wondered, “What in the world am I doing? Are people even paying attention?” I focused a lot of how many page views I would get or how to get more people to comment on my blog posts that at times it became overwhelming. However, my confidence began to increase with each blog post.

Throughout the year, I’ve grown to enjoy it a lot, and at times I stay up at night thinking of what to blog about next. To help me, I’ve incorporated the feedback given to me by my readers, and I’ve tried to find interesting ways to engage my readers so that I would be delivering content that’s engaging and relevant while still holding true to my intentions for blogging.

The highlight of the past year has been being recognized as one of 30 Black women bloggers to look out for in 2012 by For Harriet. I was completely caught off guard. I never would have thought that I would receive this type of recognition, particularly in the first year of blogging. It made me realize more than ever that, despite page views or blog comments, people really were paying attention.

To express my gratitude for every retweet, every “like”, every “favorite”, every comment, every re-post, and every newsletter subscription, I’m holding another contest for y’all with some awesome prizes! (Just look at the picture above!)

Here’s how the contest works:

1) Check out the blog archives to refresh your memory on every blog post I’ve written between July 2011 and now.

2) In the comments section below, share your favorite blog post AND why. Tell everyone what you got out of the post. This will help me further develop my blog content and services. Also, leave some sort of identifying information such as a Facebook page URL, Twitter user name, an email address, etc. so I can know who to contact. (FYI: Letting me know what your favorite blog post is without telling me why doesn’t count.)

3) Check back on July 11th (the one year anniversary) at 12pm (Eastern) where Taja Lindley and I will announce the contest results live via Twitter . The results will also be posted on my Facebook page and here on the blog.

Of course, I wouldn’t have a contest without having some prizes! I will be choosing 2 winners (Yes! There will be 2 winners) . The winners will each receive one piece of jewelry of their choosing from Luminary Sol, the summer 2012 collection from Colored Girls Hustle (up to a $45 dollar value).

Good luck! The contest ends July 11, 2012 at 11:30am Eastern.

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29 Feb, 2012

What I Wish My Mom Would Have Told Me About Sex

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:41:38-04:00February 29th, 2012|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Parent-Child Communication, Youth|0 Comments

Between February 13-24, 2012, I asked the following question:

If there is one thing you wish your mom would have told you about sex and sexuality while growing up, what would it have been?

I asked friends, family members, colleagues, Facebook friends, people who’ve “liked” my Facebook page, newsletter subscribers, and my Twitter followers this question, and I got some cool, interesting, funny, and thought-provoking responses.

Once again, I’m using SlideShare to present my results to you.

(Source: http://www.slideshare.net/)

Raise Your Voice: Did anything surprise you, inspire you, anger you? Maybe you’ll see yourself in the responses. If not, share what your experience was like in the comments below.

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18 Jan, 2012

2011 Blog Reader Survey: The Results

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T17:39:04-04:00January 18th, 2012|Categories: Research & Evaluation|Tags: Blogging, Feedback|0 Comments

From December 28, 2011-January 13, 2012, I conducted a short survey to get feedback from my readers on how my blog is doing and where my readers would like to see the blog and my consulting services go in the future.

I wanted to just type of a regular blog post to show the results, but I wanted to try something different.

I came across this awesome service called SlideShare, where you can share PowerPoint presentations in a cool format beyond sending people an email with an attachment.

Ta-da! Above are the results! (Make sure to click the four arrows on the right bottom portion of the screen to view the slideshow in fullscreen.) Have any questions or comments? Share them with us in the comments section below!

Also, congratulations to Chanel Marshall of Jaali, Co. for completing the survey and being chosen as the winner of two pairs of beautifully designed earrings by Colored Girls Hustle. (I put everyone’s name on pieces of paper, tossed the pieces in the air, and picked….a very scientific way of doing things.)

Tackling Teen Pregnancy Prevention: A Comparison of Solutions

Program Monitoring & Evaluation: Leveraging Your Strengths and Smoothing Out the Hiccups

Participate in My 1 Year Blog Anniversary Contest! (CLOSED)

What I Wish My Mom Would Have Told Me About Sex

Raise Your Voice: Did anything surprise you, inspire you, anger you? Maybe you’ll see yourself in the responses. If not, share what your experience was like in the comments below.

2011 Blog Reader Survey: The Results

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