Amador County Mental Health Services Act Planning

RDA is currently conducting a county-wide community planning process in Amador County for all five components of MHSA planning: Prevention and Early Intervention; Workforce Development and Education; Capital Facilities and Technology; Housing; and Innovation. Over the course of the coming months, staff will conduct best practice research, feasibility analysis and budget development. We are already beginning to convene strategy roundtables, focus groups and community meetings to hear feedback and gather input from consumers and family members, Behavioral Health Department staff and partners, and other stakeholders across the county.

Butte County First 5 Baby Steps Evaluation

RDA is beginning a 3 year evaluation effort of the First 5 Baby Steps program, which is a special initiative of the Butte County First Five Commission. The program is designed to provide home visiting, education and family building activities to mothers under the age of 25. By examining both the program's outcomes on participants and its fidelity to previously defined program goals, RDA will provide information to stakeholders on process and outcome measures. RDA's experience in combining qualitative analysis through structured interview, discussion and survey protocol with analysis of quantitative data relating to specific outcome indicators will provide a rich body of information to the Commission and program staff.

Cañada College Evaluation

RDA is evaluating Cañada College's efforts to increase the number of Hispanic and low income students attaining science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degrees. This formative evaluation involves site visits, interviews, focus groups, and data analysis of student demographics, enrollment, transfer rate, pre- and post-tests and student satisfaction and perceptions of STEM programs. RDA will measure the efficacy of the program to achieve its goals, as well as the appropriateness of the program's design in addressing core challenges.

Fresno County Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Evaluation

Fresno County Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Division is working with RDA to conduct an evaluation of its Babies First Program, an initiative serving low income women at risk of having poor birth outcomes due to experiences of violence, history of substance abuse, homelessness or housing instability, linguistic isolation and teen pregnancy. Evaluation activities include comprehensive data collection during the progress of the pregnancy and up to two years following the birth of the child depending on the severity of the intervention. The evaluation is measuring the ability of the intervention to positively shift known health disparities in Fresno County including: an extraordinary high rate of infant mortality amongst African American births, a rising teen pregnancy rate (as opposed to state and national trends) and to generally improve birth outcomes in specific Healthy Start targeted neighborhoods where high rates of poverty, violence and substance use correlate with poorer birth outcomes on average than the rest of the County.

Kings County Mental Health Services Act Planning

The Behavioral Health Administration in Kings County, working with RDA, is developing comprehensive Prevention and Early Intervention and Innovation Plans to be submitted to the State Department of Mental Health. Through community outreach, data collection, needs assessments and other planning activities, RDA will develop strategies specific to the County's particular behavioral health needs.

Merced County Mental Health Services Act

RDA is happy to be the successful bidder for Merced County's Capital Facilities and Technology Needs planning effort for the Mental Health Services Act. The Merced County Board of Supervisors and the State of California approved the plan for Prevention and Early Intervention services. RDA facilitated this community planning effort and we are looking forward to continuing to work with the community. Read more in the May 2009 newsletter from California Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission.

Oakland Measure Y Evaluation Design

RDA is in its second year of evaluating Oakland's Measure Y Initiative, the Violence Prevention and Community Policing Act. By analyzing the impact of 26 community based programs through both quantitative and qualitative measures at three levels including: 1) changes in the community, 2) progress of the programs toward their specific goals, and 3) changes experienced by program participants RDA will help to inform stakeholders about how well the Measure Y programs and community policing activities are working. Building on last year's evaluation findings, RDA will be able to provide a richer, more comprehensive evaluation for the second year.

Reports for the 2008-09 evaluation year can be found on the Measure Y evaluation webpage located at: http://measurey.org/index.php?page=evaluation

Oakland Policing Department (OPD) Community Policing Data Reporting System

RDA is in the process of developing a project management system, SARA, for the Oakland Police Department to serve as a tool for officers and to facilitate greater understanding of policing strategies and impacts in the City of Oakland. The data system will improve the process of OPD assessment and assignment and enrich the analysis and research efforts of participants by providing a framework to summarize data and deliver specific reports. The database will also provide accurate authorization and controlled access to sensitive information. Officers can access the system with any web browser from on-board laptop computers in patrol cars, and their supervising sergeants can monitor project status and details in real time.

San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency Conflict Resolution Training

SFMTA employees face increasingly difficult situations in their daily interactions with the public. RDA has contracted with SFMTA to provide conflict training to MTA staff to empower them to reduce stressful and/or potentially harmful encounters. RDA will begin our trainings by performing an organizational needs assessment of MTA.

San Joaquin County Mental Health Services Act Planning

On behalf of San Joaquin County's Department of Behavioral Health, RDA served as planning consultant for two MHSA components: Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) and Workforce Education and Training (WET). As part of this effort, RDA completed a comprehensive needs assessment with personnel data from over 800 public mental health employees. The assessment brought together consumer and family members, Department and CBO employees and staff, high school, community college and university educators, human resources and workforce development experts in over 50 focus groups and key informant interviews which demonstrated training needs, staffing shortages, underserved populations and other service gaps related to staff experience, training and education. Read more about San Joaquin County's WET and PEI plans.

Sonoma HEAL Evaluation

The HEAL initiative is a Kaiser-funded effort to improve community health and disease prevention through environmental and system changes. In collaboration with the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, RDA is working to develop and implement an evaluation plan for the HEAL initiative. RDA's role includes facilitating participation in the process across large multi-disciplinary groups, tool development and data collection and analysis.

State California Mental Health Services Act

RDA is currently providing planning services to the Mental Health Oversight and Accountability Commission for the initial evaluation of MHSA programs across the State. We will perform an inventory of current MHSA evaluation efforts and develop a framework of potential evaluation measures. In concurrence with MHSA values, this process will be informed by stakeholder input and will incorporate community, individual and system level outcomes. Our final deliverable will be a fully developed scope of work to guide the upcoming evaluation of all 5 MHSA components throughout California counties.

Yolo County Substance Abuse Evaluation

RDA is currently conducting an evaluation of the ACT on Recovery program, supported by the SAMHSA TCE Rural Methamphetamine Grant. ACT on Recovery provides an interdisciplinary approach to treatment of rural methamphetamine abusers most in need and most difficult to serve, particularly those with co-occurring mental health issues. Through a process and outcome evaluation, RDA assesses to what degree the ACT program was able to meet the objectives laid out by SAMHSA, and the program's impact on clients.

Wright Institute

On behalf of the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, RDA facilitated the formation of a development plan for innovative public school-based clinical training sites. RDA led a strategic planning process that ultimately resulted in a concrete concept paper, logic model, budget and a prioritized set of funding opportunities. The proposed school-based project will result in collaboration between Oakland Unified School District and the Wright Institute to place between 8 to 10 graduate students in four elementary schools with the goal of fostering academic achievement through the provision of culturally competent, evidence-based psychological services to children and their families.