About: For over 100 years Jewish Family Service of St. Paul has been a lifeline to people in need. While their programs respond to changing conditions, the mission remains constant:  Inspired by Jewish values, Jewish Family Service assists individuals and families by helping them build on their strengths to develop the skills and confidence to meet life’s challenges with dignity.

Evaluation opportunity: Jewish Family Service of St. Paul is seeking an evaluation intern (unpaid) to assist the agency in the development of its outcome reporting system.  At this point, the agency has identified a range of evaluation outcomes for its three program areas and overall agency functioning.  Some of the outcome data is already being collected and is ready for reporting.  The intern would help create a quarterly outcome report as well as a procedural manual to guide future reporting.  The intern would also help develop and implement strategies for designing new surveys to collect outcome data that is not currently being captured.  There is also a possibility for the intern to co-facilitate a Ripple Effect Mapping session (a participatory group impact evaluation method) of the agency’s collaborative work with other agencies serving seniors or providing employment services.  This internship would be supervised by Scott Chazdon, Ph.D., an evaluation specialist at University of Minnesota Extension, who also serves as a volunteer co-chair of the Program Committee at Jewish Family Service.

Specific activities may include but are not limited to: Creating an evaluation plan, Developing or revising data collection instruments (surveys, interview questions, observation protocols, etc.), Collecting data (interviews, focus groups, surveys, observations, etc.), Analyzing data, Reporting writing/Presenting findings

Note of interest: The Agency is looking at developing an evaluation tool known as Goal Attainment Scaling (used often in social work environments).  This could become another interesting aspect of the evaluation work needed by the agency, with much potential for a student to “go deep” and make this a thesis or dissertation project.

Pay rate: This is a volunteer position

Timeline:  Initial project is for Summer 2013

Interested? Email a cover letter and resume to Scott Chazdon (schazdon@umn.edu). An interview may be required.

Evaluation of Horizon Youth Program

Summer 2013

Position title:

Evaluation Consultant

Description:

This is a unique opportunity for a student evaluator to gain valuable, hands-on experience designing and implementing an evaluation plan for a South Minneapolis summer youth program – Horizons Youth Program.

Horizons Youth is an academic enrichment and youth development program for children 5 to 14 years old. Horizons takes a holistic approach to out-of-school time education through structured, caring relationships with program staff and peer workers. This leads to a positive attitude about school and better performance. Students also gain experience in chess, art, music and science.

Horizons is part of Sabathani Community Center which has been serving predominantly African American, and now a growing number of Latino, South Minneapolis residents since 1966. Sabathani’s building houses forty different non-profit tenants and Hennepin County will soon be co-locating there. This makes Sabathani a very unique one-stop social service hub.

Specific evaluation needs & tasks include:

• Collaborate with the program manager to identify evaluation needs and strategies.

• Develop data collection tools and implement their use.

• Analyze data and create internal reports.

• Work with program management to implement sustainable evaluation practices.

Desired Skills/Experiences:

• Principles and Methods of Evaluation or equivalent program evaluation course (required)

• Experience and/or coursework in survey development and analysis

• Experience and/or coursework in quantitative and qualitative methods

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Cultural competency and experience working with urban youth

• Interest/experience in evaluation capacity building

• Interest/experience in educational/youth evaluation

Timeline and Pay:

One student consultant is needed throughout the summer. This will be an unpaid self-directed opportunity with some support from another evaluation consultant working at Sabathani. The scope of the project, hours, and deliverables are all negotiable. Ideally the student consultant would work 5-10 hours a week. This is the perfect opportunity for someone who has another job/internship but is seeking to broaden their skill set while volunteering for a long-standing, highly-regarded community organization.

To apply:

Please send a current resume and statement of interest (this can be in the body of your email) to Josie Shardlow at shar0123@umn.edu. An interview with staff/leadership may be required.

The Office of Student Affairs and the Minnesota Evaluation Studies Institute

Description:

Focus group facilitators are needed for an project with the University of Minnesota’s Office of Student Affairs (OSA).   The evaluation project’s overarching purpose is to better understand the various aspects of the student experience as it relates to internationalization. In particular, the Office of Student Affairs would like to explore to what extent and in what ways students perceive and experience efforts to internationalize curriculum and student life—both for international and domestic students. The University of Minnesota’s Evaluation Studies Institute (MESI) staff will provide support for student consultants.

Responsibilities

• Work with staff from OSA to design focus group guidelines and questions.
• Moderate focus group
• Provide written reflections on the focus group
• Prepare a rough transcript of focus group
• Work with other facilitators to do an identification of themes and analysis
• Prepare a brief written report for internal distribution
• Provide an oral report of findings to OSA and its partners

Skills/Experience:

• Principles and Methods of Evaluation (OLPD/EPsy) or equivalent program evaluation course (required)
• Experience and/or coursework in qualitative methods, specifically focus groups
• Experience and/or coursework in qualitative data analysis
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Interest/experience in higher education and international education

The ideal candidate:

• has previous experience facilitating and designing focus groups
• is able to listen and think at the same time
• can keep personal views and ego out of the facilitation
• can appropriately manage challenging group dynamics

Requirements: The focus group moderators must be enrolled as a student at the University of Minnesota during the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school year.

Timeline and Pay:

Facilitators will conduct approximately 2 focus groups in the summer of 2013 with the opportunity to conduct up to five more in the fall of 2013 . A total of $500 will be paid per focus group facilitated. This includes the planning, moderating, analysis, and reporting.

 To apply:

Please send a current resume and letter of interest/cover letter (this can be in the body of your email) to Nora Murphy, MESI Coordinator, at murp0504@umn.edu. An interview with OSA staff/leadership may be required, and OSA will make the final hiring decision.

This is a great opportunity for students to gain experience with focus group facilitation and earn a little extra cash!

Interested students should email Stacie at stacietoal@aol.com.

Children’s HeartLink: 

Background: Children’s HeartLink™ is an international NGO, based in Edina, MN. For over 40 years, Children’s HeartLink has been dedicated to the prevention and treatment of heart disease in children in the developing world. Our main focus is to help pediatric cardiac programs in underserved areas become sustainable centers of excellence in treatment and training. Children’s HeartLink currently has partner hospital programs in Brazil, China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Ukraine and assists prevention efforts in Ecuador.

The Position: Children’s HeartLink is seeking a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Intern.  The M&E Intern will assist the international programs department on a variety of activities that support Children’s HeartLink’s monitoring and evaluation efforts, though other public health, clinical quality improvement, or international development-related assistance may be needed.  The intern will work closely with, and report to, the International Programs Analyst.

Intern Requirements: The M&E intern will be expected to work approximately 5-10 hours per week, for 3 months or longer.  The intern will have work space available in Children’s HeartLink’s office in Edina, MN, but may also work from home when appropriate.  This is an unpaid internship; however, Children’s HeartLink is willing to work with the intern to adapt this opportunity to meet the requirements of a university field experience.

Click here to learn more.

The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor is hiring program evaluators.  The online link to information on the position descriptionsand application process is:  www.auditor.leg.state.mn.us/jobs.htm

Position Responsibilities:

• Develop, maintain and help evolve evaluation protocols and tools for Trig Life Services on an organizational, business client and employee client level
• Develop, maintain and help evolve measurement protocols and tools for Trig Life Services on an organizational, business client and employee client level
• Develop, maintain and help evolve reporting tools and resources for Trig Life Services on an organizational, business client and employee client level
• Assist with client meetings that provide reporting on the progress of business and employee client’s progress towards strategic objectives on a semi-annual basis
• Trouble shoot and resolve any client issues related to evaluation, measurement and reporting
• Work closely with the Trig team, identified members of CHS staff and preferred vendors
• Other additional duties assigned

Click here to learn more!

Handouts: Some speakers many their handouts available Click here to see a list of sessions that have handouts available  Check back, as handouts will be added as they become available.

Photos: We will be posting photos from the conference here. Stay tuned!

Next Year: We are already thinking about dates for next year! Stay tuned for the announcement. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please email us at mesi.umn@gmail.com.

with Katie Richards-Schuster

Thurs., Mar. 14, 2013
8:30 a.m. – 12 noon
McNamara Alumni Center-Memorial Hall
200 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis map 
Cost: Free, but you must register

Register to attend online

Register to attend in-person

Katie Richards-Schuster defines participatory evaluation as a process in which people join together and develop knowledge for action and change. It involves people in evaluation, community assessment, policy analysis, and other studies and it can give young people the power to ask their own questions and influence organizations and communities in unexpected ways. She offers that moving towards “evaluation research as program participation” can significantly change how we practice youth work. Join Katie as she shares lessons and innovations from Detroit, Michigan and other cities utilizing youth participatory evaluation, and the implications of this evaluative practice in local communities and the field of youth work.

About the speaker:  Katie Richards-Schuster is the director of the Community Action and Social Change minor and an assistant research scientist in the School of Social Work’s Michigan Youth and Community Program.  Her research focuses on youth participation strategies and community-based participatory evaluation with young people.

More information

This event is made possible by the Howland Family Endowment for Youth Development Leadership at the University of Minnesota.