We always have many, many questions, and perhaps you do, too. We have complied several frequently asked questions and responses to address your concerns, provide additional thought/clarification, and to improve transparency.

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The questions below are grouped into two themes: questions specific to End Grain Research and Evaluation processes and questions related to our staff. This page is an ongoing dedication to transparency in our work, so new questions/responses specific to End Grain Research and Evaluation will be added as they arise.

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More comprehensive information about finding your perfect evaluation partner can be found on our Resources page.

 

Please reach out via our contact page if we have not fully addressed your inquiry or have overlooked it entirely.

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End Grain Research and Evaluation - Questions

 

We are applying for a grant that requires an independent evaluator. However, we do not have any funds currently to hire an evaluator to write the evaluation section. If the grant is funded, we would like End Grain Research and Evaluation to conduct the evaluation. Does End Grain Research and Evaluation do this sort of work?

 

Yes, we have done exactly this work. However, before our team commits to collaborate on grant applications unfunded, we would like to learn more about the grant, funder, timeline, the organization’s history of success, the grant writing team, specifications for the evaluation section, and other questions specific to the project in mind.

 

What is your rate?

 

We charge $150 dollars per hour for our services. If this is cost-prohibitive, please let us know and we can talk it through further.

 

What is it like to work with End Grain Research and Evaluation?

 

We pride ourselves on inclusion, transparency, humility, kindness, quality of our work, and optimization of partnerships. We will ask tough questions, push for reflection, hold our partners accountable, and conduct our work with respect for all voices and stakeholders. In practice this means meeting deadlines, co-creating solutions, and honest conversations. You and your team can expect us to arrive prepared, ask a lot of questions, and respect differences of opinion.

 

We will create deliverables that meet your specifications and needs, and expect that such parameters are communicated with us.

 

We are available during business hours (MST) and limit our use of email outside of these hours. However, exceptions are always made for emergencies, time zones, and approaching deadlines. If contracted with us we will provide you with our Communication Procedures such that we are all on the same page.

 

Can you train our staff to implement an evaluation plan?

 

Certainly! Although such training cannot often take place in a one-off training, we are happy to work with your team to optimize internal evaluation capacity.

 

How do you select projects to work on?

 

We cannot take on every project that is presented to us due to time restraints. Therefore it is critical that all projects leverage End Grain Research and Evaluation expertise in a meaningful way. Specifically, this means that projects require an equity lens such that the evaluation efforts are engaging with an organizational partner/program that aims to achieve equity and/or social justice with their work.  The evaluation world is also built strongly upon relationships. Our team likes to work with partners that are, at the very least, interested in evaluation, and find these efforts to be valuable. We also like to work with partners who are kind, brilliant, dedicated, and reflective.

 

What do you do with data collected during evaluation efforts?

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End Grain Research and Evaluation is diligently working to disseminate findings such that others can benefits from evaluation efforts. This means that we like to have access to data after contracts are complete such that de-identified findings can be posted on our website. This is not a requirement of evaluation partnerships, but is a component we are striving to bolster.

 

Are you HIPAA compliant?

 

Google Suite, and therefore gmail, are not encrypted as required by HIPAA. However, we are in the process of purchasing software to encrypt emails to maintain HIPAA compliance. If you are concerned about this, let us further the conversation with you. There are a variety of solutions that can be implemented to address confidentiality and security.

 

What approaches do you traditionally take when attending to community voice?

 

The first component to incorporating community voice into evaluation efforts is to define community. While this seems straightforward, this is often a challenge. Once defined, we traditionally employ focus groups, key informant interviews, and surveys to community members. The specific method reflects the evaluation question at hand, but we heavily rely on participatory and empowerment approaches.

 

What does the contracting process look like with End Grain Research and Evaluation?

 

Once we have decided to work together, we will send you our Business Agreement, our Data Agreement, and our Communication Procedures. If your organization has specific forms that need to be completed, we are happy to review them such that all items are covered. We will decide upon additional items in the contract including timelines, deliverables, and budget. Once all forms are signed by both parties, we can get to work!

 

Can I contact organizations that End Grain Research and Evaluation has contracted with in the past?

 

Most definitely. Please let us know you are interested in this as it is our policy to seek consent with previous clients before disseminating contact information. If you become a client, we also will never share your information without your written consent, (nor anyone's information, for that matter!)

 

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Staff Questions

 

What are your qualifications?

 

Lynn VanderWielen

Formally, I have a PhD in Health Services Organization and Research, and an MPH in Population, Family, and Reproductive Health. I studied at Virginia Commonwealth University, where I completed my dissertation examining outcomes of care for Medicaid beneficiaries, and at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where I took courses in epidemiology, biostatistics, demography, maternal/child health, health disparities, and health policy.

 

Prior to creating End Grain Research and Evaluation, I held an academic appointment at The University of Colorado School of Medicine and with the School of Public Health. While at the University I conducted several research studies examining access to behavioral health services among communities traditionally lacking access to services. These efforts also included evaluation of clinical sites and evaluation of integrated behavioral health and primary care services. I have also served as a Senior Evaluator at the Mental Health Center of Denver where I focused efforts on population-based service that aimed to address disparities in the North East Park Hill community. This included evaluation of an aquaponics greenhouse, community farm, adolescent suicide prevention program, community-based mental health services, integrated care services, and collaborating on evaluation efforts for the deaf and hard of hearing team. Later as the Director of Research and Evaluation at The Center for African American Health I lead efforts to incorporate community voice, wisdom, and perspectives into policy, practice, and programming through the creation and maintenance of a community-based longitudinal panel. I lead our Community Advisory Board and contracted with organizational partners to conduct evaluation. Throughout my career I have published in the academic and gray literature, presented at state, national, and international conferences and received recognition for my work.

 

Less formally, I am passionate about equity and evaluation. My drive for learning, development, and dedication to this space is rooted in Northern Wisconsin where I grew up in a low-resource community with extraordinarily supportive parents. As a first generation college student, a combination of luck, grit, dedication, stubbornness, and curiosity for knowledge got me through my undergraduate studies and I knew I wanted to further my education.