In 2001, The California Endowment (TCE) awarded more than $10 million over three years to eight diabetes demonstration projects throughout the State of California. The projects were located in eleven urban and rural counties throughout California. The overarching goal of the projects was "...to reduce health disparities through education, treatment, and management of the growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes within African American, Latino, Native American, Filipino and Vietnamese communities." The projects supported strategies aimed at improving environments that support healthy eating and physical activity, and specifically focus on increasing access to nutritious foods in schools and communities, safe places to exercise, and improving health norms to support healthy eating and fitness habits.
Abundantia's CEO & President, Zoe Cardoza Clayson, was the Principal Investigator for this evaluation. The evaluation was conducted in collaboration with Aguirre International and Samuels and Associates. The evaluation team worked closely with grantees to shape an evaluation and create products capable of supporting grantees and informing TCE strategies into the future. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected over a two-year period on the following topics: outreach and access; patient education; clinical care; provider education; community knowledge and connections; and system change: health care delivery and the policy arena. Results and reports were synthesized through the use of innovative web based technology, the Logic Map (an internal web site), which made project documents openly accessible via the web to a wide variety of stakeholders.
