Measures of Success: Part I
05/14/2012
Underage Drinking Prevention Town Hall Meetings are taking place all across America this year, with the support of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). SAMHSA began this national effort in 2006 and has continued to support events every 2 years since. This fourth round of events in 2012 represents a significant investment of shrinking Federal resources, and SAMHSA must account for how well these resources are being used. As in past years, SAMHSA is asking all community-based organizations that host an event to complete a short survey about the event and planned follow-up. For the first time, SAMHSA will be asking a subset of participants to also provide their input. Both the Organizer and Participant Surveys were approved by the Office of Management and Budget.
Throughout the Town Hall Meeting season, SAMHSA will be sending instructions to event hosts on how to access and complete an online Organizer Survey. Acquiring this information is important because the federal government is accountable to Congress and the public for ensuring that limited dollars are used for efforts that achieve positive and measurable results. Sharing the results of your event demonstrates the value of Town Hall Meetings in helping your community take positive steps to prevent underage drinking. Your feedback also helps SAMHSA develop materials that can improve the effectiveness of any future Town Hall Meetings.
As a Town Hall Meeting host, here are the types of information that the Organizer Survey will ask about your event:
- Location, length, language(s), topics, and collaborating organizations;
- Estimated total number of people who attended your event;
- Types of speakers;
- Materials used;
- Actions planned as a result of the Town Hall Meeting;
- Community-based organization’s satisfaction with the Town Hall Meeting; and
- Effectiveness of the training and technical assistance received.
Four hundred randomly selected community-based organizations also will receive a separate Participant Survey in paper format. If your organization was one of those selected, you will receive 40 copies of a two-page questionnaire (available in Spanish on request), which participants should be able to complete in 5 minutes. SAMHSA is asking that you hand out the forms at your meeting and also stress the importance of survey responses to the Town Hall Meeting evaluation. Once you collect the completed forms, you need only to return them in the postage-paid envelope that has been provided.
Questions your participants will be asked include:
- What is the most important underage drinking issue in your community?
- How effective was the Town Hall Meeting in addressing that issue?
- How effective was the Town Hall Meeting as a learning experience?
- Will you share the materials and lessons learned after the Town Hall Meeting, and with whom?
- How do you plan to participate in future underage drinking prevention efforts?