What We Do

Research

All research undertaken by PFH is driven by three objectives: (1) to quantify impact; (2) to contribute towards the knowledge base; and (3) to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of community-owned research.

Community-based Participatory Action Research allows for research to be conducted in, for, and by communities. It is grounded in the needs, issues, concerns, and strategies of communities and the community-based organizations that serve them.

Patient Centered Outcome Research typically compares the impact that alternate approaches have on health outcomes with priority given to those outcomes that are meaningful to clients/patients.

evaluation

Since 2010, PFH has successfully implemented over 103 individual evaluation contracts which include 125 individual evaluation projects. Throughout, PFH has demonstrated a strong track record of blending traditional evaluation approaches (e.g., surveys, interviews, and focus groups) with more innovative methods (e.g., Photovoice, Ripple Effects Mapping, Social Network Analysis, and World Cafés). This combined approach allows evaluations to achieve both the rigor and creativity required for social innovation.

Whenever possible, PFH conducts mixed-methods evaluations and data triangulation to tell a comprehensive story. A mixed-methods evaluation ensures that all quantitative data is supported and contextualized by a qualitative narrative.

Capacity Building

PFH believes it is important to build evaluation competencies locally and nationally. This has been achieved through separate but inter-related strategies:

• Building Communities of Praxis. Maine Evaluation Society. PFH took the lead in establishing the Maine Evaluation Society in 2016. This is a formal affiliate to the American Evaluation Society. The Executive Director of PFH is the Founding President of the Maine affiliate.
• Internships. PFH serves as an internship/preceptor site for undergraduate
  and masters-level students who are interested in an immersive evaluation experience. To date, interns have come from University of New England, University of Maine, Clark University, Dartmouth University, and Emory University.
• Evaluation coaching. PFH provides ongoing technical assistance and training to nonprofits, health systems, and foundations. This is done through individual sessions as well as Project ECHO.
• Invited workshops, guest lecturers/presenters.

data driven decision making

For all evaluations, PFH (1) identifies common measures; (2) develops systems that minimize reporting burden; (3) ensures that all evaluations include the voices of vulnerable populations; and (4) highlights the uniqueness of each setting while quantifying the overall impact.

With a focus on evaluation utilization, PFH supports the use of findings for the continuous improvement of programs. PFH believes that all evaluations and performance measurement processes should be useful and provide clients and programs with findings that promote continuous quality improvement. Through the collection of real-time performance measurement data and the implementation of both long-term and short-term evaluations, PFH provides findings to clients throughout the entire project lifecycle and helps to provide data-driven recommendations for public health solutions.