Overview: Through a range of participatory approaches, TIER works to meaningfully engage families, staff, and other interested parties in our evaluation designs, data collection strategies, interpretation of findings, and reporting. The participatory method and approach varies based on the project goals and questions, and has included: hiring, training, and mentoring community members with lived experience relevant to project topics to work as Community Evaluators who design studies, collect and analyze data, and translate data into meaningful policy and recommendations; convening evaluation working groups and advisory committees to inform evaluation questions, protocols, and the interpretation of findings; and facilitating action-oriented learning communities with providers from a range of program contexts to identify key issues and solutions.
Learn more about each of these evaluations by clicking on the arrows.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Initiative to Address COVID-19 Health Disparities Award
Project years: 2021–2021
Description: With funding from the CDC, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health partnered with TIER to support community-based participatory evaluation projects designed and led by community members to explore public health inequities that were exacerbated by COVID-19. Residents who were personally connected to the projects were recruited and trained as Community Evaluators to design and carry out projects, including protocol development, recruitment, data collection, analysis, and developing of recommendations for improved and more equitable public health response. Examples of funded projects included understanding the experiences of people with disabilities, parental decision-making about COVID-19 vaccination for young children and during pregnancy, and the experience of childcare workers.
Publications:
Community Health Equity Initiative Qualitative Data Collection
Project years: 2023–2025
Description: The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH)’s Community Health Equity Initiative (CHEI) contracted with TIER to work on a collaborative project with communities across the state to collect and use data to change conditions that get in the way of health. CHEI partners with communities, particularly those often left out of public health data efforts, to collect, analyze, interpret, and act upon data that both reflects community members’ experiences and the topics important to them. Using a community-based participatory research approach, TIER recruited, trained, and supported a cohort of Community Evaluators to carry out qualitative data collection in their communities. This initiative complemented a statewide online survey released by MDPH in summer 2023 by exploring topics and experiences that would be difficult to understand from survey data alone.
Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program Needs Assessment
Project years: 2019–2020
Description: Funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, TIER conducted the needs assessment for the Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MA MIECHV). The goals of the needs assessment were to: (1) identify communities to be prioritized for MA MIECHV funding; (2) identify the quality and capacity of existing programs or initiatives for early childhood home visiting in the state; and (3) discuss the state’s capacity for providing substance use treatment and counseling services to individuals and families in need of such treatment or services. TIER’s broader aims were to generate a comprehensive understanding of the needs of families with young children across Massachusetts to determine whether existing family support programs and services are sufficient to meet families’ needs and identify strategies to strengthen the state’s early childhood systems of care.
Publications:
Massachusetts Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MA MIECHV) 2020 Needs Assessment
Parents as Teachers (PAT) Learning Communities
Project years: 2022–2025
Description: As part of our multiyear project with the Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC), TIER developed a Learning Community approach to inform “bottom-up” policy and practice changes shaped by provider insights. Facilitated by TIER, the PAT Affiliate Learning Community convened home visitors and supervisors from nine different states together with leaders from PATNC who oversee policy, training, implementation, and curriculum development. The Learning Community functioned as both a peer learning venue for home visitors and supervisors, and an advisory group for PATNC leadership on its initiative to tailor services for families who are involved with the child welfare system. Participating affiliates met quarterly over a one-year period to share promising practices and challenges and to collaborate with PATNC to develop and pilot new resources. Through the Affiliate Learning Community, PATNC developed and released a package of new resources specifically designed for home visitors and supervisors to use when working with families experiencing child welfare involvement. Since then, TIER has continued to incorporate the Learning Community approach into other projects, including our evaluation of PAT’s work with families impacted by substance use, and our work to expand access to the Paid Family & Medical Leave benefit in Massachusetts.
Qualitative Data Collection for the Massachusetts Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Review Committee
Project years: 2022–2025
Description: With funding from Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Preventing Maternal Mortality: Supporting Maternal Mortality Review Committees Initiative, TIER conducted a small community-engaged qualitative study to inform MDPH’s maternal health initiatives. Led by Community Evaluators, this study included qualitative interviews with Black women and birthing people who severe experienced pregnancy-related complications during pregnancy, delivery, or within one year postpartum. Findings were shared through a series of presentations with maternal health providers and community members in Massachusetts.
The Root Cause Solutions Exchange
Project years: 2023–2025
Description: TIER collaborated with the Root Cause Exchange at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) and experienced Community Evaluators to pilot an approach for engaging residents in scoping and carrying out an evaluation project and translating data to action. To scope this project, Community Evaluators gathered feedback within their respective communities about pressing health and social concerns and used this feedback to inform a set of policy questions to explore. The project comprised a desk review of economic mobility programs and policies with a focus on guaranteed income programs in Massachusetts and focus groups with residents about their experiences accessing economic and financial assistance programs and resources to generate policy and practice recommendations based on key findings. Our work served as a “test case” for authentic community engagement to inform the Exchange’s future work and other data-to-action efforts undertaken by MDPH.