From Community Clinics to Statewide Policy Change: Evaluation Lessons from The California Endowment’s “Clinic Consortia Policy and Advocacy Program”
At this breakfast, Dr. Annette Gardner will provide an overview of the evaluation findings from The California Endowment’s “Clinic Consortia Policy and Advocacy Program” and describe some methods and tools that evaluators and advocates can readily use to assess the impact of advocacy strategies.
In 2001, The California Endowment (TCE) pledged $10 million to help build the advocacy capacity of 19 clinic associations in its “Clinic Consortia Policy and Advocacy Program.” Spread across California and targeting diverse populations, the grantees aimed to increase access to high quality and affordable health care for underserved Californians. TCE believed that strengthening the capacity of these associations to support the policy and operational needs of community clinics could help lead to substantial improvements in public health, for example, by promoting policies to expand clinic services for low-income populations. Three years later, in 2004, TCE invested an additional $8.8 million to continue funding 18 of these clinic associations.