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IMPACT's evaluation of federally-funded treatment programs concludes; outcomes net additional funding
IMPACT’s Planning and Evaluation team serves as the external evaluator for a number of long-term projects that are supported by federal funding. Local organizations receive the federal funding and partner with IMPACT to collect and analyze data about who the projects serve and what outcomes are achieved.
Four long-term projects with Meta House and United Community Center have recently concluded. Two of the projects supported residential treatment programs for people with substance use disorders and two supported long-term recovery housing/treatment programs.
Combined, the projects brought over $10 million dollars into Milwaukee to support community members in their recovery.
Throughout the course of our engagements with these partners, the IMPACT team provided data-driven feedback to the programs and funders about how the projects were being implemented, as well as successes and challenges they were experiencing. As each project came to a close, the IMPACT team conducted a final “summative evaluation,” analyzing and reporting on all the data collected over the five years of funding.
Findings from the four projects indicated that quality treatment can help people move into recovery.
- The projects served a total of 775 people with substance use disorders, with several projects also serving people's children, significant others and/or family members.
- Most of the individuals had lengthy histories of substantial substance use, past experiences of trauma, and co-occurring mental health issues.
- The implementation of each project experienced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, requiring considerable flexibility and many adaptations.
- As a whole, the people served by each project experienced highly significant improvements in the areas of substance use, mental health, and trauma symptoms.
- Positive outcomes were also observed in the areas of family functioning, the well-being of children, and peoples’ risk for contracting HIV or Hepatitis.
Our evaluations contributed to program improvement and supported collaboration across systems. In addition, our data played an influential role in program sustainability. The positive outcomes documented have already led to new funding for each of these programs, with a total of $13 million additional federal dollars coming into our community over the next five years.
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