The Context

Each year, more than 1 million school-age children become homeless. As one may expect, such a traumatic experience can lead to severe social and academic disruption. The Siemer Institute works to prevent family homelessness and to decrease school mobility, giving children from disadvantaged families a better chance to achieve academic success.

The Critical Questions

In 2023, more than 19,500 families received services from Siemer Institute-affiliated programs to help them maintain housing, stabilize their children in school, and boost their incomes to a more sustainable level. To what extent do these programs help families obtain or maintain stable housing, increase their income, and avoid disrupting a child’s education via an unplanned school move?

Our Solution

From 2016 through 2023, Illuminology employed a variety of research methods to conduct several comprehensive evaluations of program impact. For example, we generated easy-to-understand descriptive statistics of program impacts and also conducted more advanced statistical data analyses (i.e., ordinary least squares regression models) that allowed us to identify statistically significant predictors of programmatic impact. Furthermore, we conducted many one-on-one interviews with representatives of Siemer Institute-affiliated programs throughout the country and analyzed the qualitative data gathered from those structured conversations. By designing research approaches that employ multiple, complementary methods, we were able to deliver a robust, accurate, and useful understanding of why certain programs experience high success rates on key outcome measures and how such successes could be replicated elsewhere.

Illumination

Illuminology’s reports clearly communicated the many ways in which Siemer Institute-supported programs accomplish their objectives and identified opportunities to improve future programming (and evaluation) efforts.

Resolution

The various program evaluation reports were well received by the Siemer Institute’s staff, Board, and broader network of programs. These successful engagements led to the Siemer Institute contracting with Illuminology to research and write multiple issue briefs (i.e., white papers written for a broad audience) on topics of importance to those working to prevent family homelessness. These issue briefs can be accessed via the links below:

• Siemer Institute – Defining 2-Gen Programming
• Siemer Institute – Applying 2-Gen Approaches
• Siemer Institute – Defining Trauma-Informed Care
• Siemer Institute – Applying Trauma-Informed Care

The Context

Franklin County HealthMap2022 is the result of a broad collaborative effort coordinated by the Central Ohio Hospital Council (COHC), Columbus Public Health (CPH), Franklin County Public Health (FCPH), and Illuminology. The intent of this effort is to help health departments, hospitals, social service agencies, other organizations, and community stakeholders better understand the health needs and priorities of Franklin County residents.

The Critical Question

What does a comprehensive overview of the Franklin County community’s health status and needs look like? What acute and chronic health conditions, access to care barriers, and other health issues face residents, and how can these health needs be prioritized so that community resources and efforts are directed to where they will have the greatest impact?

Our Solution

As in previous years, we obtained the most recent and highest quality secondary data from trusted sources. New in 2022, we conducted 10 focus groups with residents living in the geographic areas served by the health departments and hospitals; these sessions provided us with the opportunity to better understand many of the nuances relating to key health issues as well as to identify the action steps that residents recommend the health organizations consider in the future. After analyzing these primary and secondary data, we created a summary report organized by health theme, using tables and graphics to display trends over time locally as well as comparisons to state and national data. When possible, data were presented visually by zip code. That summary report, which organizes information and insights thematically, can be accessed here.

Illumination

Many indicators suggest that residents’ health compares favorably to those elsewhere in the state and country, while other indicators suggest areas in which residents are less healthy. Using these data and insights, Illuminology successfully facilitated meetings attended by representatives from dozens of organizations who identified the following issues as ones that have an outsized impact on community members’ health: basic needs (housing security, financial stability, neighborhood safety, food security); racial equity; behavior health (mental health and addiction); and maternal and infant health.

Resolution

As reported in the Columbus Dispatch, Central Ohio’s hospitals and other community stakeholders are actively working to develop and implement strategic plans that will address the community’s prioritized health needs. Franklin County HealthMap2022 will continue to be a source of information that helps keep people healthy, strengthens community relationships, and guides the targeting and prioritization of limited resources.

Our team is proud to have helped the Central Ohio Hospital Council create a comprehensive overview of the community’s health status and needs.

As reported by the Columbus Dispatch, mental health and addiction is central Ohio’s top health concern, followed by income/poverty (which are “social determinants of health”) and maternal and infant health.

Developed in collaboration with Ohio State University’s Center for Public Health Practice, Franklin County HealthMap2019 will serve as a guide to target and prioritize limited resources, a vehicle for strengthening community relationships, and a source of information that contributes to keeping people health.

We’re glad to have had this opportunity to help the community become a bit stronger!

On November 3, 2017, Orie Kristel had the great honor to give a TEDxColumbus talk on the topic of trust. Titled, “Get out and volunteer: A pathway to social trust,” he spoke about (1) how trust is defined in the psychological literature (2) the extent to which people in our community trust one another and (3) what this means in terms of community engagement.

It was an awesome experience. Video of his talk will be available in a few weeks. Stay tuned!