Applying an Evaluability Assessment Tool to Community-Based Programs in Pittsburgh

Abstract

In the city of Pittsburgh, in 1994, of the approximately 53% of the 2,916 delinquency cases disposed by the juvenile court, about 70% involved African American Youth. This disproportionality is magnified by the time youths reach the correctional system, and recent efforts to address the problem have stressed the need to intervene before offenders initially enter the system. The purpose of this article is threefold. First, it attempts to provide some insight into three community-based prevention programs that were funded by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to address the problem of minority overrepresentation. Second, it discusses the obstacles associated with evaluating the programs and provides recommendations for overcoming them. Finally, it describes a tool that was used in early process evaluations for the three programs using experiences in those programs as case studies illustrating the hazards of conducting outcome studies in any setting in the absence of preliminary evaluability assessments and process evaluations.