The Girlfriends Project

Evaluating a Promising Community-Based Intervention From a Bottom-Up Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID12471222
AuthorsMary Hawk (0000-0001-9753-4356, University of Pittsburgh, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume36
Issue2
Pages179-190
Publication date2014-06-27
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Evaluation (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1098-2140 • E-ISSN: 1557-0878
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1098214014540789
OpenAlexW2012604657
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard in research but may not fully explain or predict outcome variations in community-based interventions. Demonstrating efficacy of externally driven programs in well-controlled environments may not translate to community-based implementation where resources and priorities vary. A bottom-up evaluation approach, in which community-developed interventions are evaluated for efficacy and then disseminated, improves the relevance of findings for real-world settings. The Girlfriends Project is an HIV risk reduction intervention developed by and for African American women, which I evaluated using a bottom-up approach. In this article, I discuss methods to increase community engagement and evaluation rigor, including retaining community members to assist with participant recruitment and data collection, as well as facilitating a shared decision-making process between the evaluator and community members. I also discuss specific challenges and strategies for the evaluation of community-developed interventions in real-world settings and highlight the value of this approach

Intervention (counseling · Medical education · Political science · Program evaluation · Psychological intervention · Relevance (law · Sociology · Applied Psychology · Community Health and Development · Evaluation and Performance Assessment · Health Policy Implementation Science · Medicine · Psychology

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