Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative Year 4 Report 2013-2014

The Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative (OPEC) is a multi-year initiative led by The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), The Ford Family Foundation, and Oregon State University (OSU). Financial supporters include the Meyer Memorial Trust, The Collins Foundation, and OCF Donor Advised Funds. The initiative supports expanded access to best practice parenting education programs, with a focus on programs reaching parents of children prenatal to age six, and supports efforts to develop and strengthen regional parenting education "Hubs." OPEC is unique in its collaborative, foundation-approach in building a statewide infrastructure for parenting education through community-based non-profits and public agencies. The initiative was launched in July 2010. In 2013-2014, there were twelve regional parenting Hubs serving 19 Oregon counties and Siskiyou County, California. During this past year the OPEC initiative also funded ten Small Grant projects in the Portland Metro area to provide evidence-based classes and/or home visiting for specific groups of parents. The OSU evaluation team synthesized overarching lessons and impacts for the program year

Development of a University Undergraduate Course Sequence About the Extension System

Many undergraduates are interested in community-based programming, but at most land-grants undergraduates have little contact with Extension. This article describes a grant project that developed two undergraduate courses about Extension and community-based, experiential education. The academic-year course incorporates lecture, discussion, guest speakers, and hands-on activities. The summer-session course takes students to visit program sites in operation. In outcome evaluations, students gained significantly in their understanding of land-grants, Extension, and community programming, and gained confidence in working collaboratively, among other findings. Recommendations note that the success of similar courses requires involvement of county Extension personnel and balancing of several key factors

Evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program: 2009 Report

Findings of the 2009 evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program. The evaluation focused on assessing the impact of the Leadership Program on individuals and networks. In addition, some suggestions for the future of the program were discussed

An Online Reporting System for Evaluating Multi-Site Parenting Education Programs

Experience from developing and implementing an online reporting system to evaluate parent education programs in rural communities is described. The information we collect from multi-site project coordinators has fostered ownership of the program data and promoted accountability in evaluation outcomes. Coordinators report on parent experiences from surveys and write narratives to characterize their organization\u27s community partnerships on a quarterly basis. Community collaborations and capacity building activities of 18 unique parent education programs are captured in a standardized way. Five important tips are shared for others interested in developing and implementing online reporting systems for evaluation purposes