OUTREACH AND PROGRAM-EVALUATION - SOME MEASUREMENT ISSUES

Literally, the word ''outreach'' evokes the image of ''reaching out,'' attempting to touch what is currently beyond one's grasp. Activities that help organizations to ''reach out'' are important elements of mos t services, and some organizations employ outreach paraprofessionals w hose primary function is to help recruit participants into a program. Because outreach is supposed to occur before individuals receive the g oods or services offered by an organization, evaluations generally do not measure the amount of outreach contact. However, outreach and prog ram intervention activities tend to overlap when an organization encou nters resistance from a population of potential consumers. Drawing on 10 years of experience evaluating HIV risk-reduction interventions for drug users who are not in treatment, the authors argue that outreach workers are part of the intervention continuum, and have important eff ects not only on recruitment, but also on service delivery. We argue t hat the evaluation and measurement issues raised by pre-enrollment out reach contacts can be best addressed by improving quantitative pre-enr ollment data collection. Finally, we present and discuss specific elem ents of a system for measuring pre-enrollment contacts.