Evaluation of MelroseWakefield Healthcare’s DON CHI Grant-Making Initiative

Client: Melrose Wakefield Healthcare
Topic Areas: Behavioral health and substance use; Grant-making programs; Healthcare delivery systems; Social determinants of health
Service: Participatory Evaluation

ICH is currently serving as the evaluator of Melrose Wakefield Healthcare’s (MWHC) Determination of Need (DON) Community-Based Health Initiative (CHI) grant-making program. Under the oversight of their Community Benefits Advisory Council, made up key stakeholders from the towns in MWHC’s service area, MWHC has awarded eight grants to improve behavioral health-related outcomes. As with all DON CHI projects, the focus is on upstream policy and environmental changes to affect the social determinants of health and improve health equity in order to impact health outcomes. As the evaluator, ICH  contributed to the process of creating the RFP, and designed a project logic model and evaluation plan. Over the four year grant period, ICH will be providing individual evaluation technical assistance to grantees and developing annual evaluation reports.