Center for Research Strategies Developing Public Health Online Training Series

Spotlight on the Scholars in Public Health Practice: 
 

Center for Research Strategies

“Public Health Online Training Series”

Story by Kim Riley, MPH
The Center for Research Strategies

Earlier this year, the Center for Public Health Practice of the Colorado School of Public Health solicited proposals from individuals working in any aspect of public health in Colorado for financial support for a 12 month project. The funding for these projects was sponsored by the Colorado Health Foundation. The general purpose of this fellowship is to support scholars to create novel and useful products, as well as to provide academic enrichment for those working in public health fields in Colorado to enhance their professional work.  The Center for Research Strategies’ (CRS) proposal to develop a series of online trainings for the Center for Public Health Practice was selected as one of the Scholars in Public Health Practice awards. A portion of the project manager’s salary was supported with this award.  Kim Riley is the Director of Health Education at the Center for Research Strategies, a client-centered evaluation firm in Denver.  

Kim Riley, MPH, is developing a series of six short “crib note” style online trainings to be posted on the Center for Public Health Practice website for access by public health professionals in the workforce.  Each training module consists of a 20-minute slide presentation about a different public health evaluation topic and includes accompanying worksheets and quick tips designed to assist busy professionals to develop and apply evaluation skills in their work.  The trainings cover a wide range of topics, including: communicating evaluation results, developing online surveys, identifying stakeholders, conducting key informant interviews, designing and facilitating focus groups and employing nominal group technique as a needs assessment method.  The trainings complement the more in-depth, in-person workshops and trainings being conducting by staff of the Center for Public Health Practice, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and other public health partners. These trainings appeal to busy professionals who want to get a brief overview of a particular topic and practical tools they can apply in their everyday work.  These training modules will be available online soon.  To view these and other public health training opportunities, visit the training Colorado Public Health Training Center page.

The Center for Research Strategies is a mission-driven company, focused on translating research into action.  It is a woman-owned, small business that provides policy, research, and evaluation services to non-profit, for-profit, state and federal agencies. The CRS team prides themselves in their ability to work in partnership with clients to improve their ability to serve their intended clients while building program capacity.  All projects operate on team principles with professional staff members collaborating across projects depending on the demands of the project and the expertise that is required.  For more information please visit www.crsllc.org.