137 - Developmental and Systems Change Evaluation in Rural Communities

Abstract Information: North Carolina is home to the second largest rural population in the nation with about one in every three people living in a rural area. Rural communities like Robeson County, NC face complex challenges that create persistent disparities in health outcomes.

With funding from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation (NCHF) is activating a systems change approach to address the root causes historically impeding meaningful progress for rural communities.

Through the Social Impact Project, NCHF has engaged anchor institutions and community-based organizations to target systems that hamper equitable access to health. Once the community identifies a system, they will develop the first of what will eventually be 3 distinct requests for proposals to provide mini grants to pilot innovative solutions.

Traditional evaluation plans fall short of adequately meeting the complexities of systems change work. Therefore, NCHF is leveraging the flexibilities of a developmental evaluation along with the principles and rigor of systems change evaluation. Examples of this approach include avoiding using evaluation as an accountability mechanism to the funder and training community members on topics such as the use of logic models and return on investment analysis.

This approach has the advantage of widening the population equipped to use program evaluation. It can activate those in under resourced communities to leverage stories and data to communicate needs and ultimately advocate for culturally acceptable solutions with staying power.