Evaluation
Using Data for Lasting Change
Good decisions are informed by good data.
We design and implement community-based evaluation and research using relevant, innovative, and cost-effective methods and strategies to address complex social issues. We seek opportunities to engage research participants and team members with lived experience and employ community-based participatory research methods to improve outcomes for marginalized populations through person-centered care, recovery and stable housing, health and wellness.
We also know that lasting organizational change is dynamic, iterative, and reliant on continuous feedback and improvements. To support clients through learning, implementation, and program development, we monitor progress over time—a strategy that fosters accountability.
C4 Innovations utilizes several guiding frameworks to ensure that all studies and projects are:
- Scientifically rigorous
- Using state-of-the-art methodologies and practices
- Identifying clear research questions
- Developing and implementing evidence-based practices
- Account for the needs of participants as well as the context of their lives
- Committed to closing the gap between research and implementation
- Rooted in community-based participatory research
- Dedicated to consumer input at all stages of the project
- Culturally responsive and competent
- Designed to improve and refine practice and build community capacity
- Focused on quality improvement and feedback
- Committed to widespread dissemination of study findings to the field

Preventing Substance Use for At Risk Adolescents
We developed and evaluated an extended, brief mentoring intervention for adolescents at risk of substance use. The intervention—Project Amp—is delivered by young adult peer mentors with lived experience of recovery.

SPARC: A C4 Racial Equity Initiative
C4 Innovations is leading a dual research-action project to better understand the experiences of homelessness among people of color and implement racial equity into homeless services to reduce racial disparities and homelessness rates. Following a successful Phase 1 implementation...

Recovery Planning Toolkit
With Phase I funding from National Institute of Mental Health, we collaborated with Yale University’s Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) to adapt PRCH’s evidence-based training for Person-Centered Planning into Recovery Roadmap, an online...

Recovery Housing Environmental Scan in Ohio
We staff completed an environmental scan focused on recovery housing in Ohio. The project sought to identify and describe the current state of recovery housing across communities; effective models, key elements, and promising practices; funding and technical assistance...
C4 strives to create a research climate that promotes objectivity in research by establishing standards such that the design, conduct, and reporting of Public Health Service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research is free from bias resulting from financial conflict of interest (FCOI). Learn more.