RMC works with health care, educational, social service, and other community organizations to improve how they work and the quality of their services. Through evaluations we help organizations measure their progress toward goals and the impact and effectiveness of their programs and initiatives. We convene stakeholders to develop common measures and reporting systems to increase the quality of data available to managers and decision-makers. Our work has supported programs in partner violence prevention, the effective use of out-of-school time, pre-natal care, and transitioning out of poverty.

PlusTime NH Evaluation
Working with PlusTimeNH, which provides support, training, information, and funding for out-of-school youth programs, RMC convened a statewide task force to design a common reporting system for program characteristics and outcomes, developed instruments to track implementation and evaluation data from model sites, and built PlusTime NH’s capacity to integrate evaluation activities into its ongoing work. As part of this work, RMC also evaluated academically oriented afterschool programs for Out-of-School Matters! New Hampshire (OSM!NH), an initiative funded by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to offer low-income middle school students high-quality out-of-school programs that increase their academic skills and school performance.
Read the Afterschool Task Force Report.

Evaluation of Jumpstart-Experience Corp Pilot Program
RMC conducted both first and second year program evaluations of an innovative collaboration between Jumpstart, a service program originally designed for college students working with preschoolers, and Experience Corps, which supports service opportunities for Americans over 55. The studies offered insights into developing service opportunities for older adults, through examination of Corps members-school site fits, the success of training Corps members as peer team leaders, and recruitment challenges.
Read the Executive Summary of the Jumpstart-Experience Corp report.

Evaluation of Home Visiting New Hampshire
RMC conducted a two-year process and outcome evaluation of the Home Visiting New Hampshire (HVNH) initiative, a state-funded program that funds home-based health, education, and support services to Medicaid-eligible pregnant women and their families. For the process evaluation, RMC collected data and monitored the program’s implementation; the outcome evaluation followed 764 mothers and their babies from pregnancy through the first year of life. Comparing HVNH data over time and with state data, RMC documented mothers’ pregnancy and birth outcomes, changes in health-related behaviors, and improvements in the home environment and family circumstances.
Read the Executive Summary of the Home Visiting New Hampshire report.

Dorchester Community Roundtable Evaluation
In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) funded a three-year national initiative to study coordinated community responses to intimate partner violence. RMC was the external evaluator for one of the ten sites, Boston’s Dorchester Community Roundtable, a coalition of hospitals, health centers, police, courts, and non-profit service providers. Conducting both process and outcome evaluations of the coalition’s success in delivering victim and batterer intervention services, IPV educational outreach, and prevention activities, RMC compared Dorchester’s survey and interview data with data from other IPV service providers in similar communities without such a coalition.

QEd Newsletter for Adult Literacy Educators
RMC is providing editorial and production/design services for five issues of QEd, an adult literacy newsletter for the National Institute for Literacy. Other Institute contractors for the Institute have developed original content, while RMC supplies editorial, design, and production services, including preparation for Government Printing Office processing, for QEd.
Read QEd Issue #1.

COMPASS Program Evaluation
Under a contract with the non-profit Foundation for Seacoast (New Hampshire) Health, RMC conducted evaluations of both the adult and youth components of COMPASS (Community Partnerships for Self Sufficiency), which helps adults receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and high-risk youth learn skills and strategies essential to personal success. Working with local Community Action staff, RMC developed survey and interview data tools, conducted focus groups on the program’s effectiveness, and produced reports and recommendations for both the adult and youth programs.

Manchester Community Schools Survey
The Manchester, NH Chamber of Commerce commissioned RMC to “take the pulse” of city residents’ attitudes toward the public schools. Through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, RMC produced a report on public perceptions of the schools and created a turnkey presentation Chamber and other business leaders now use to strengthen the connection between business and education.

Evaluation of The Last Speakers
RMC conducted formative evaluations for the documentary film The Last Speakers, produced by Ironbound Films Last Speakers tells the story of scientists committed to identifying and preserving “vanishing voices” throughout the world—languages lost, or nearly lost, through cultural and political changes. The film documents the work of scientists and native speakers exploring and preserving linguistic diversity, featuring some of the unique language structures on the verge of extinction around the world. The film’s goals include accurately representing the emotional experience of language loss in a community, and inspiring high school students to pursue careers in linguistics and join the effort to preserve endangered languages.

Laidlaw Foundation and the Canada Council Arts and Community Evaluation 
In 1997, with funding from the Laidlaw Foundation, RMC designed and conducted an evaluation of eleven arts and community projects in Canada, tracking how the projects engaged a broad spectrum of community members, both artists and non-artists, in creating new work and building relationships. Projects ranged from plays and video screenings to multimedia art exhibits and the involvement of an entire community in reviving a fading Native American art form. RMC designed evaluations for the local communities, prepared case studies from the data, and conducted a study of the funders’ grant-making structures and collaboration.
Read about The Artists and Communities Pilot Initiative.