Custom Supports

Supporting capacity building practice within your organization for evaluation

After performing an initial situational analysis, we develop a one-page data sheet which you will fill-out on initial visits and use to monitor progress.  We then give staff a brief overview of evaluation which is tailored to their data gaps, and develop evaluation questions with you that can be asked at the end of service delivery sessions. Our Custom supports are delivered through remote engagement, in-person supports, and on-going supports and expert advice.

Remote Engagement

An economical communication
proven to be an effective support tool

We offer a variety of remote communication services which we can customize to suit your needs. Training sessions can be held via teleconference on a telephone as well as via Skype and Webinar.  These sessions can include providing performance measurement through bi-weekly phone calls between us and the project manager.  Another option can include 3 – 4 key phone calls and email exchanges over a 2-week period which assist in identifying funding avenues, tuning-up the work plan, interpreting community-defined priorities, and scoping out an evaluation methodology / overall approach.  We are very experienced with the realities of funding streams and multiple reporting templates.  One of our goals is to streamline these templates and add your own organization’s priorities into the data collection integrated-process.  Participants have reported on their comfort level in our communication skills and our ability to make evaluation user-friendly.

In-Person Supports

We can spend one-day on-site
providing a strong base of supports

Our primary goal is to leave you with concrete tools and strategies that will enhance your internal evaluation processes.  If we do our job correctly, the organization will have a solid understanding of the logic behind evaluation and with more than one-day on-site we can provide an in-depth understanding.  A key tool which can completely change your data collection efforts is collaboratively developing a one-page data sheet which can monitor client progress within an agreed set of community-defined results.  Based upon our expertise we have provided recommendations for assessment tools, such as monitoring child development milestones that engage parents in the assessment process.  We can also give personnel a brief overview of evaluation which is tailored to their data gaps.  Another quick tool we can collaboratively develop are evaluation questions that you can ask at the end of service delivery sessions.

On-going Supports and Expert Advice

On-going communication to support
utilization and strengthen practice

Too many of us become naturally engulfed in our everyday busy work lives and find difficulty in applying new tools and knowledge.  We suggest at minimum booking 1 – 2 conference calls post-engagement.   These should occur two-weeks and one-month post-tool development.  The learning goal is to discuss any inhibitions you have encountered and work through challenges.  As a practitioner for 20-years it has been an uphill battle to push the envelope of Indigenous evaluation, and you may be drowning in the demands of Western thought and practice.  There are likely to be distractions which side-track the implementation of the new tools, and approval processes may also prove to be inhibiting.  We have experience in Indigenous governance issues and would share insights in developing a broader wholistic evaluation strategy to advance your organization’s agenda, as  leader is service provision.  In essence we can act a listening board and offer guidance in creating broader strategic evaluation plans.

The Benefits of Our Custom Supports

What You Will Learn

  • About the gaps and challenges in your organization’s current evaluation practice.
  • An understanding of the issues surrounding the reconciliation between Western and Indigenous evaluation practice.
  • How to utilize templates and participate in developing tools and sketch-out a comprehensive evaluation strategy.

Who Can Benefit From Our Custom Supports

  • Indigenous programs, such as First Nations Health, Métis organizations, Inuit governments.
  • Government staff and management who manage programs directed to Indigenous peoples.
  • Non-government organizations who work with Indigenous peoples.
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Your leadership and expertise and network of colleagues in Aboriginal health have been essential to the advancement of the important work of making valid improvements to our criteria and assessment process.

Nina JethaManager, Canadian Best Practices Initiative
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The collaborative nature of the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada and Johnston Research Inc. working relationship, enhanced the success of the project.

Fjola Hart WasekeesikawExecutive Director, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada
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The corporate ability to organize, provide consistent messaging and interpret sensitive information and apply it to funding formulas and allocation methodologies proved to meet the operational needs of the program.

Manager, Family Violence Prevention Program & Justice Issues, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
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The JRI Team is cooperative, well-informed and a pleasure to work with.

Brian DokisExecutive Director, Southern Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre
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The evaluators conducted themselves in a very professional manner throughout the process; in addition to being very flexible in order to get the job done.

Manager, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

Interested in Our Custom Supports?

Get in touch and take the first step in letting us improve your organization!

CONTACT US