Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
American Journal of Evaluation
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Richard, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Dayton-Shotts, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Outreach and Program Evaluation: Some Measurement Issues1

Alan J. Richard

Affiliated Systems Corporation, 3104 Edloe, Suite 330; Houston, Texas 77027-6022

David C. Bell

William N. Elwood

Cheryl Dayton-Shotts

Literally, the word "outreach" evokes the image of "reaching out," attempting to touch what is currently beyond one's grasp. Activities that help organizations to "reach out" are important elements of most services, and some organizations employ outreach paraprofessionals whose primary function is to help recruit participants into a program. Because outreach is supposed to occur before individuals receive the goods or services offered by an organization, evaluations generally do not measure the amount of outreach contact. However, outreach and program intervention activities tend to overlap when an organization encounters resistance from a population of potential consumers. Drawing on 10 years of experience evaluating HIV risk-reduction interventions for drug users who are not in treatment, the authors argue that outreach workers are part of the intervention continuum, and have important effects not only on recruitment, but also on service delivery. We argue that the evaluation and measurement issues raised by pre-enrollment outreach contacts can be best addressed by improving quantitative pre-enrollment data collection. Finally, we present and discuss specific elements of a system for measuring pre-enrollment contacts.

American Journal of Evaluation, Vol. 17, No. 3, 237-250 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/109821409601700304
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?