Capacity Building

In 2022, the National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, Information and Technical Assistance Center for Councils on Developmental Disability (ITACC) contracted with PFH to develop and implement the Building Utilization-focused Developmental Disabilities Impact Evaluation Skills (BUDDIES) Project.

The Project’s goal is to build evaluation capacity and competencies so that Developmental Disability Councils (DDCs) are able to engage in continuous quality improvements, data-driven decision making, and communicate the impact of their Council.

The BUDDIES Project will provide evaluation technical assistance at both the organization and individual staff levels. Experienced evaluators will provide DDCs with the training and technical assistance needed for them to implement structural, system-level changes that increase their organizational evaluation capacity, and increase DDC staff’s evaluation skills and confidence.

The BUDDIES Project will be implemented in four phases from 2022-2026: An assessment in 2022 will provide results that will be used to develop a Project ECHO curriculum. Project ECHO sessions will begin in 2023 and be facilitated every two months. In addition, a library of resources and materials will be available on the ITACC website.