For the past two years a collaboration of two CRJ entities have been working on preparing an outcomes evaluation of the work of our Community Strategies Department in Massachusetts. The staff of Crime and Justice Institute and Community Strategies have had many insights into how we operate and where we could improve the already excellent work of Community Strategies.
At the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers Annual Conference, Gabriella Priest, Associate at CJI; Terry Burch, Clinical Director for Community Strategies; and Bill Coughlin, Chief Operating Officer, presented how we have gone about this work, what we learned, adjustments we made and what are our next steps. with over 80 attendees in the audience, there were many questions and engaged conversations.
This collaboration is currently wrapping up an extensive Process Evaluation analyzing the extensive input from consumers, funding sources, parents and guardians and CRJ staff. From that analysis will come a series of recommendations to be implemented over the coming year. Once those improvements are in place, we will seek and outside entity to conduct an outcome evaluation.