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TCWF staff had the responsibility of managing the overall Initiative. This
included the day-to-day management of grants, as well as overseeing the planning
of the annual conference for grantees and convenings of the VPI advisory
committee. Staff was also responsible for monitoring the evaluations of the
Initiative.
The annual conference provided an opportunity for grantees to develop and
strengthen skills, share lessons and promote collaboration between and across
organizations and components of the Initiative. The annual conference was a
yearly opportunity for the Foundation to facilitate purposeful interaction among
the components of the VPI to help strengthen the overall impact of the
Initiative.
The role of the Advisory Committee was to provide technical assistance, guidance
and advice to TCWF about the goals, strategies and activities of the VPI, with a
particular focus on the policy programs of the Initiative. The Advisory
Committee was convened twice yearly throughout the course of the VPI.
The evaluation of the VPI included an evaluation completed at the midpoint by
Stanford University, Rand Corporation, and Johns Hopkins Injury Prevention
Center. The evaluation was designed to provide timely information to the staff
and Board to assist in decisions over changes within the VPI, as well as to
measure the effectiveness of the interventions utilized by grantees. The
evaluation was designed to not only determine the effectiveness of each
Initiative component, but also to develop an understanding of how the components
interacted and reinforced each other. The evaluation reports from the first five
years provided useful data and valuable insights; however, the evaluation failed
to adequately capture the "stories" of the VPI and the grantees. To complement
the evaluation results from the first five years, TCWF awarded five grants
intended to document the more qualitative aspects of the Community Action Grants
Program, the Leadership Program and the Policy Program, as well as an objective
history of the overall Initiative. In addition, a grant was made to produce a
video that captured the experience of VPI grantees.
Although staff were not the technical assistance (TA) providers, staff at the
Foundation were charged with identifying grantees able to assess the needs of
grantees in the CAG Program and managing the delivery of TA to grantees.
Technical assistance was designed to build the capacity of individuals and
organizations involved in the VPI.
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