ICH is the evaluator for Voices for Health Justice (Voices), a program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and run by Community Catalyst with support from Community Change and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Voices program provides funding and technical assistance for 25 grantee organizations across 24 states, along with subgrantee partners. The overarching goal is to build power in communities experiencing disproportionate health inequities to improve the health care system’s accessibility, affordability, and ability to treat all people with dignity. ICH’s evaluation draws from utilization-focused and equitable evaluation approaches and emphasizes participation and real-time learning. Through the evaluation, we seek to understand the outcomes of the grantee projects and the Voices program overall, and to contribute to knowledge about building policy infrastructure and community power for health justice.
ICH facilitated a participatory process with program partners and grantees to co-develop an evaluation plan for the Voices program. As part of this process, ICH convened an Evaluation Advisory Committee of representatives from grantee and sub-grantee organizations to participate in the creation of a logic model and evaluation plan via asynchronous data collection and virtual design sessions. We also hosted monthly reflection sessions with Voices Steering Committee members to discuss progress and findings, reflect strategically on next steps, and identify necessary modifications to program and evaluation activities. ICH also conducted an environmental scan consisting of literature review and expert interviews, and prepared a white paper with findings. The environmental scan aimed to identify best practices for community power building and associated measurement approaches; strategies for tracking policy change and understanding contribution and attribution; and the ways in which structural racism impacts and interacts with community power-building.
ICH is currently implementing the evaluation plan in collaboration with the Evaluation Advisory Committee and Voices Steering Committee.
You can download the products from the participatory planning process below, as well as a report of early evaluation findings from the first nine months of the program.