The Process Evaluation of the National Friendly Access^SM Program

The Process Evaluation of the National Friendly Access^SM Program project, funded by the cooperative agreement between the Association of Schools of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will continue the process evaluation of the implementation and legacy of Friendly Access^SM.  Specifically, the project aims to determine to what degree the four pilot communities were able to implement a project based on the Friendly Access^SM program model and discover to what extent each community developed the capacity to change the system of maternal and child health care.

Friendly Access^SM is a national program designed to help health care delivery institutions, and staff collaborate with community residents and stakeholders from the public and private sectors to improve access to and use of quality maternal and child health services in order to reduce health disparities and improve population health.  This project refines and expands the process evaluation by:

1.  Evaluating changes in the cohesion and collective efficacy of the coalitions since implementation of the Friendly Access^SM program;

2. Obtaining the perspectives of coalition members and other key informants on the implementation of the Friendly Access^SM model and the achievements and challenges in enacting systems change; and

3. Assessing each community’s use of data to support and develop strategic planning initiatives.