Serving the Office of Minority Health and Its Grantees

Over a period of four years, LTG Associates worked with over 120 OMH grantees ranging from community-based organizations working on HIV/AIDS services to state agencies, to data centers. LTG: (1) Conducted an assessment of OMH sponsored minority serving CBO evaluation plans and assisted with refining the plans, where necessary, to ensure that the identified project outcomes were compatible with stated objectives in achieving the desired outcomes. (2) Provided individualized evaluation technical assistance to the OMH-funded grantees to strengthen their evaluation design, data collection, and reporting plans. (3) Conducted systematic analysis of grantee evaluation plans and capabilities. For nearly two years, LTG senior analysts provided evaluation support to OMH and direct technical assistance in evaluation planning and implementation for a cohort of over 80 grantees simultaneously in four programs including the Bilingual/Bicultural Demonstration Grant Program, the Community Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities Demonstration Grant Program, the HIV/AIDS Health Promotion and Education Program, and the Technical Assistance and Capacity Development Demonstration Grant Program for HIV/AIDS-Related Services in Minority Communities. LTG continued this work with a new cohort of 46 grantees in the following programs: The American Indian/Alaska Native Health Disparities Program, the State Partnerships to Improve Minority Health Program, the Bilingual/Bicultural Demonstration Grant Program, the Community Partnerships to Eliminate Health Disparities Demonstration Grant Program, and the HIV/AIDS Health Promotion and Education Program. The grantees in these programs designed and implemented innovative approaches to improving the health of minority populations and reducing health disparities. Their work involved direct health education and awareness services to individuals, training and supporting providers, providing organizational development assistance to local organizations, and building local and state coalitions. LTG senior analysts worked with grantees serving a wide array of minority populations, operating at different levels of the health care system, and possessing differing degrees of organizational capacity for evaluation. LTG worked closely with OMH to tailor each step in the process, to ensure that changing needs of OMH were addressed rapidly and within budget, to ensure that OMH was fully informed of grantee progress, challenges, and facilitators, and to ensure that lessons from the field were communicated to OMH in a timely and useful manner. Finally, LTG developed and conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of the capacity building and the satisfaction of the grantees with provided support.