Measures of Effectiveness
There are five different areas where evaluative questions must be answered.

1) Effectiveness of Follow-Through on the Framework
Once the recommendations of Cultivating Peace in Salinas have been prioritized and charted in a timeline for action, it will be critical to assess follow-through. Are recommendations being developed thoroughly and implemented in a timely manner? Importantly, community members and representatives of Salinas are encouraged to revisit this framework on an annual basis to assess progress and make necessary modifications to the action timeline.

2) Effectiveness of Specific Recommendations
As the recommendations made in this framework are implemented, it will be important to ask, “Are they having the desired results?” Leadership groups and community members must take a central role in delineating the measures for effectiveness, and in so defining these, make periodic recommendations for what can be modified and what has been learned to strengthen such efforts.

3) Effectiveness of Violence Prevention Programs
Are the specific programs involved in violence prevention effective? One model for assessing this has been used by the Department of Social Services, County of Monterey as well as United Way and governmental groups across the US. In this model, the service providers to be evaluated come together to determine their own indicators of a successful program. In this way, service providers are able to establish their own measures of success. This method should be compared to the current practices in Salinas. The City and County should then discuss whether or not to establish consistent evaluation criteria. The Department of Social Services has had success using this matrix model with Healthy Start and would be willing to provide training and support to the City on the implementation of this type of evaluation.

4) Effectiveness of Networks & Collaborations
Collaborations such as the Core Group that developed this framework play a very important role. The behaviors and relationships that emerge from these networks may be difficult to measure, but clearly they have an additive value to initiatives. New methodologies that measure the depth and frequency of interaction between network participants provide an important indicator of the worth of coalitions. Measures include: Are agencies receiving increased referrals or recommendations from sources in the network? Are organizations developing joint initiatives or grant proposals? Do organizations contact one another when policy or funding initiatives emerge?

5) Assessing the Effectiveness of Framework Overall
While the above four evaluation criteria help determine the effectiveness of specific elements of the strategy, the fundamental question is, “Is the overall framework working? Is the approach contributing to an overall effective strategy for reducing violence?” Other issues for inquiry include the following: What modifications and improvements need to be made? How often should the framework be revisited and assessed? (One important tool for assessing the framework could be an annual report card proposed by Mayor Caballero and described in the recommendation section.) Also, qualitative assessments by Core Group members and other community representatives could provide critical input.
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