Weed and Seed of Northeast Shelby, NC: A Proposed Evaluation Design for a Community-Based Initiative
Despite efforts to eradicate crime in target areas, there is still a concern that youth may be negatively influenced by neighborhood factors such as low literacy rates, poor attitudes toward learning and unsightly housing. Weed and Seed is a strategy that is focused on helping neighborhoods weed out criminals and gang-related activities while helping them devise and “seed” activities or programs that will promote positive behavior and an improved quality of life.
This report will focus on the Prevention, Intervention and Treatment component of Weed and Seed. This component implements programs that can serve as bridges between families and communities. Key stakeholders involved with the initiative address target problem such as, lack of homework assistance, truancy, or behavioral problems. This conceptual framework, of targeting a community problem, allows the initiative to begin proposing an intervention strategy with the help of a steering committee. The steering committee comprised of community leaders and residents, has a direct interest in helping the initiatives to succeed.
This poster will present the evaluation proposal that I will design to address key evaluation questions. The key evaluation questions posed will help determine if the needs and interests of youth are being met in order to help prevent the likelihood of increased crime in low-income neighborhoods. Are youth actively involved with academic and after school programs? Are attitudes toward learning changing as a result of the programs initiatives? What other interests do the youth show besides academic involvement? (e.g., after-school athletic programs, dance classes, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, etc.).
The proposed design will combine two evaluation approaches: process evaluation and outcome monitoring. With the process evaluation, the question of how well the program is operating will...