Field Placement:  Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW)
Location: Washington, DC
Preceptor: Susie Smith
Student Name: Sophia Chen
Year: 2008

Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a Washington D.C.-based organization that works toward economic independence and equality of opportunity for women and girls at all stages of life, launched the national Elder Economic Security Initiative (EESI). Of this national effort to ensure the economic well being of elders, California is one of five pilot states to launch the movement. The other states include: Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The Initiative intends to expand to other states across the country in the next five years. The Insight Center, formerly known as the national Economic Development Law Center, was competitively selected to lead the California Elder Economic Security Initiative (Cal-EESI).

Cal-EESI is a statewide, research-driven initiative at the forefront of the national effort to raise awareness and promote policy change to ensure that older Californians can live with dignity in their own homes. It is made up of researchers, policy makers, public agencies, nonprofit service organizations, advocacy groups, and foundations dedicated to achieving the goal of transforming the way economic needs are measured and addressed for the elderly in California. To achieve that goal, a new tool was developed that enables a more accurate and realistic portrayal of what it takes for seniors to make ends meet: the California Elder Economic Security Standard Index (Elder Index). The Elder Index uses publicly available national and state data sources, such as the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to quantify the actual costs that seniors face, county by county. Included in the Elder Index are the costs of housing, food, out-of-pocket medical expenses, transportation, and other basic necessities, like utilities costs.

            My external evaluation of the Cal-EESI program sought to assess how well the strategies and activities in its implementation plan effected greater awareness, acceptance, and use of the Elder Index amongst the initial, intended stakeholder population of legislators, service providers, public agencies, researchers, funders, and advocates. As this program just completed its first phase, namely two years of work from September 2006 to August 2008, the evaluation was conceived of to capture data from early adopters of the Elder Index. Additionally, in an iterative process, any information that would help inform the next phase of the program was sought. The evaluation included a process evaluation and utilized the survey methods of interviews and a questionnaire. I went through a formative evaluation of Cal-EESI to understand how to assess it and to formulate my own approach to the evaluation. My own activities included: creating the questions for both questionnaire and interviews, editing, testing, identifying stakeholders, administering the questionnaire, conducting the interviews, analyzing the results, and writing the report.

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