PROGRAM EVALUATION & STRATEGIC PLANNING

Through its history, The Leading Edge has conducted hundreds of evaluations and conducted strategic planning, implementations and sustainability studies for scores of entities.   

​       ALCOHOL, DRUG RESEARCH, MENTAL HEALTH
                  IN SCHOOLS AND IN COMMUNITIES

State of Nevada & Clark County, Nevada.  Evaluation of multi-site, statewide and county wide SAMHSA projects to address veterans and chronically, high risk homeless populations in both urban and rural settings. 

State of Nevada, Partnership for Succes (PFS).  Evaluation of multi-site, statewide drug prevention programs, federal reporting, TA, Evidence-Based Program Chair, Statewide Epidemiology Workgroup. 

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) & Kentucky Department for Substance Abuse. Statewide Tobacco Control Projects (SYNAR) including statewide sampling and surveys of retail tobacco outlets, monitoring illegal tobacco sales, and statewide canvas of sampling frames, preparation of mandated reports, training field workers.

Kentucky Department of Education - Statewide Youth Risk Surveillance surveys. Developed youth risk survey, administered it statewide to over 20 school districts, analyzed results and provided scientific as well as public media reports.

County-Wide Community School District Partnership Drugs & School Violence Evaluation. Monitoring school violence indicators through baseline surveys of up to twelve schools and school systems annually.

Prescription Drug Treatment Evaluation Demonstration Project & Statewide Drug Surveillance Surveys. Evaluated clinical approaches to treatment of female drug abusers.  Conducted statewide epidemiological telephone and mail household surveys of prescription drug use and abuse. 

MIOCRG - Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction Grant - Cost Benefit Analysis demonstrating the impact of increased contact and therapy for mentally ill offenders.

PROGRAM EVALUATIONS Of Model Programs

California Department of Parks & California Parks Foundation. Strategic Planning and program development of programs designed to improve access for urban youth to the parks.

George Washington University Hamilton Fish Institute - School Violence Pilot Program Evaluation. Demonstration Project Consortium with 13 projects nationwide including evaluation of Programs designed to Prevent School Violence

 
Zero to Five - First Five. Comprehensive evaluation and data management services for 70+ funded programs; implementation

Kids Health Insurance Case Management  & Reporting Systems Project  Management for Solano CHI’s Case Management & Appointment Scheduling system  – Responsibilities included market research and recommendations, product  selection, contract negotiation, testing, go-live implementation, and post  implementation follow up for customer satisfaction.

National Cancer  Institute/NIH/WESTAT. Genetic  Epidemiology Branch - Field research on at risk families.
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40                                    TECHNICAL SUPPORT 

The Leading Edge uses industry-accepted project management principles to ensure high-quality deliverables are provided on time and within budget. We follow best practices for project management as outlined by the Project Management Institute (PMI). 

Project Management for global corporations projects including 2 ORACLE $6m+ enterprise installations, involved 22 external consultants, 70 countries, 100s of departments

Project Management for Inventory & Purchasing Systems in corporate environments 

University IT, Decision Support.  Student records, financial aid, budgeting, HR implementation and data migration projects (SIS, SCT, Peoplesoft)

Readiness & Needs Assessment Interviews & Reports

Case Management Systems for public service agencies

Technical Support & Help Desk Function.  Migration and implementation, and technical support for statewide reporting systems for California's First 5 agencies

​HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPORT 

Accreditation Support.  Our team members have chaired or served on more than  40 institutional re-affirmation committees for institutions with varying missions: community colleges, a regional four-year institution, and a research university. Served on SACS and WASC accreditation teams tasked with evaluating strategic planning, evaluation, and accountability processes. Experienced accreditation liaison officer (LAO).  

Business Intelligence.  Developed data extraction and display tools for dozens of universities and colleges including community colleges, four year public and private colleges and universities.

Program Review Expertise and Support- for academic and administrative support programs. TRIO, advising, and first year programs a speciality,

Student, Staff, Faculty, & Alumni Surveys - for 2 year and 4 year institutions
 Special student populations (international, minority, commuter students, seniors)
 Attrition & Retention analysis and surveys
 Student Services (library, student health service, admissions, registrar)
 Enrollment Management Surveys - entering students, new freshmen, advising, and non-enrolling students

Economic Impact Studies. Developed template for use by community college system.  Conducted Economic Impact study for CSU which was used as basis for the CSU System.  

Institutional Research & Reporting Services. Fact books, focus groups, data collectioin and analysis for special projects, IPEDS and other annual survey production.
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AT RISK CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

National Drug Control Prevention (ONDCP) and Office of Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN). Demonstration Project for at Risk families Provided program leadership to evaluate and monitor implementation of a regional Mental Health/School/Health Department partnership. Presented findings at national conference as required and worked with consortia members to identify common indicators. 

Haven (Spouse Abuse shelter).  Spanish and English surveys of attitudes toward abuse in a predominately Mexican American community.

Regional Bluegrass Mental Health & Mental Retardation Board - At Risk Families Projects  Numerous projects to analyze data to establish impact of mental health programs upon clients including: At Risk Families network, BabyLove (maternal education), Fetal Alcohol Syndrome assessment, Neuro-developmental differences in student learning.
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Healthy Communities Access Partners (HCAP)
Fresno County - Executive Leadership Evaluation & Sustainability  Planning. Conduct  in-depth interviews with health care leadership in Fresno County who are members   of the Fresno HCAP executive board aimed at reducing uninsured children,  providing universal health insurance for children in the county.  Sustainability  planning.

Health Care Navigator Project Evaluation For Spanish Speaking Families.
Provided  analysis of pilot program for a health navigators program funded by the California  Endowment. including observation and qualitative work, conducting focus groups with primarily Spanish and Asian speaking participants.