MORE TO EXPLORE: Program Evaluation

A COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH TO INTERRUPTING CYCLES OF VIOLENCE AND INCARCERATION

Client
TRENTON POLICE DEPARTMENT
Faculty
Alexander Shermansong
Team
Hanna Johnson, Nyell Lopez, Nathan Naimark, Michelle Smoler

The Trenton Police Department (TPD) has partnered with local organizations to launch Trenton Community Street Teams (TCST), a community-based violence intervention and prevention initiative designed to eliminate the cycle of violence in Trenton, New Jersey. TCST is modeled after the Newark Community Street Teams program, which led to a 60 percent reduction in homicides in Newark. The program relies on trusted messengers from the community to interrupt cycles of violence by cultivating and leveraging relationships and providing wraparound support to people in crisis. TPD enlisted the Capstone team to investigate and document the rollout of the TCST program. The team conducted a literature review of violence interruption programs around the country to develop a set of best practices and learnings. The team then interviewed program stakeholders, staff, and participants and reviewed key documents to develop a final report that examines the rollout and makes recommendations based on key findings.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

SCREENING FOR SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH

Client
NYU LANGONE BROOKLYN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT
Faculty
Rain Henderson
Team
Brooke Cascella, Jamie Fridman, Ashraf Hussain, Poonam Thakur

The NYU Langone Brooklyn Emergency Department (ED) seeks to mitigate the social determinants of health for at-risk populations by connecting patients with appropriate social resources at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). The client enlisted a Capstone team to help 1) develop a social determinant of health screener for physicians to administer during patient visits, and 2) evaluate the efficacy of a pilot screening of over 50 patients in the ED. Patients participating in the pilot who screen positive are connected to a variety of interventions via a referral system to the FQHC. The team observed the range of referrals—from food pantry bag distribution to health information pamphlet dissemination, from social work interventions to financial counseling consults—and collected data from follow-up tracking conducted by the ED and FQHC on patients who received referrals. In its final report, the team analyzes and visualizes relevant data and makes recommendations for full implementation of the triage screening and referral system.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

SCALING THE ARUNODAYA (“SUNSHINE FOR THE BLIND”) PROGRAM

Client
EK KADAM AUR
Faculty
Anna Levy
Team
Devynn Barnes, Angelica Gualpa, Fatema Husain, Ahram Hwang

Ek Kadam Aur (EKA) is a nonprofit organization that works with blind children and their families and schools in the states of Chandigarh and Uttar Pradesh, India to remove barriers to their attainment of quality education. In 2020, the Government of India required public schools to adapt their curricula and delivery methods to be inclusive of all children with disabilities, which poses significant challenges to resource-constrained systems. EKA engaged a Capstone team with the goal of reaching more blind students who are in need of education programming. During its 10-day fieldwork in Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh, the team observed EKA’s Arunodaya (or “Sunshine for the Blind”) program and the contextual dynamics affecting its participants. The team described its findings in a SWOT analysis, which drew on its observations, stakeholder interviews—with students, trainers, teachers, parents, and EKA staff members—literature review, and comparative analysis of similar programs. The team’s final report provided recommendations for strengthening and scaling the Arunodaya program, and offers tools for future impact evaluations.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

SYSTEMS-LEVEL SOLUTIONS FOR PARTNERSHIP WITH ALUMNI OF COLOR

Client
CALHOUN SCHOOL
Faculty
Sonia Balaram
Team
Marcin Branowski, Eilis Klein, Guerline Semexant, Aditi Varshneya

The Calhoun School is a private K-12 school on NYC’s Upper West Side, and its Alumni of Color Network (ACN) is an affinity group with the goals of providing a welcoming space for alumni and addressing DEI discrepancies in the school. The client engaged a Capstone team to provide recommendations for formalizing the ACN with an eye toward sustainable capacity building. Given that the ACN comprises a network of volunteers, the client specifically sought systems to make the school partnership with the ACN more efficient and impactful. The Capstone team conducted an internal scan, which included data from working group sessions with alumni of color and surveys administered to current students and alumni, and an external scan looking at similar efforts in comparable organizations. The team delivered a literature review on best practices for alumni networks and presented its findings and recommendations to stakeholders. Based on its research findings and feedback garnered from its presentation, the team produced a final report including guidance and tools salient for current use, and recommendations for building a sustainable partnership.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

UNGUARANTEED LOAN SECURITIES: A COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS

Client
GUIDEHOUSE
Faculty
Michael Dardia
Team
Jiayu Chen, Yuying Li, Elizabeth Maysonet, Lamba Najib, Alan Shabatay, Chunyi Wang

Guidehouse is a public-sector advisory firm that provides loan servicing, technology modernization, and financial services for US Small Business Administration (SBA) loan programs. Guidehouse tasked a Capstone team to explore the possibility of a secondary market for the unguaranteed portions of the SBA’s 7(a) Loan Program. The team utilized a mixed-methods research approach that combined qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as primary and secondary sources. Its research involved four phases: literature review, semi-structured interviews, market analysis, and case studies. Based on its findings, the team focused on examining two structured finance products and their markets to determine which securitization would be better suited for the SBA’s 7(a) Loan Program: credit card asset-backed securities or middle market collateralized loan obligations. The team’s comprehensive report includes an infographic and recommendations for a product strategy for the unguaranteed portions of the SBA 7(a) Loan Program.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

ADVOCACY PLAN FOR DISMANTLING THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE

Client
THE ARTHUR PROJECT
Faculty
Kalima Johnson
Team
Todd Baker, Deborah Denis, Charmaine Gentles, Haley Qualls

The Arthur Project (TAP) is a nonprofit organization that pairs middle schoolers in the Bronx with Master of Social Work clinicians-in-training for professional mentorship. Through individual-, group-, and family-based work, TAP aims to “foster a profound sense of mattering” in their students in order to build cognitive, emotional, and academic skills for success. TAP engaged a Capstone team to formalize its understanding of the school-to-prison pipeline and identify opportunities to adapt its organizational model to include student advocacy toward its abolition. The team conducted a literature review of academic research and held interviews with peer organizations focused on youth advocacy and organizing against the school-to-prison pipeline, particularly within New York State. Based on its findings, the team produced an advocacy plan recommending best practices in programming, organizational structure, and evaluation metrics for dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and strategies for how these practices can be implemented at TAP.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

SHIFTING PROCEDURES FROM INPATIENT TO OUTPATIENT SITES

Client
NYU LANGONE ORTHOPEDIC HOSPITAL
Faculty
Rain Henderson
Team
Zaina Chaudhry, Tamara Kahan, Jennifer Oh, Kelsey Pendleton-Moreno, Astrid Pineda

The Department of Orthopedic Surgery at the NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital conducts thousands of procedures annually, ranging from adult reconstructive surgery to surgical oncology. The Department enlisted a Capstone team to assist in its aim to provide outstanding patient care and maximize financial performance, while adjusting to changes to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inpatient-only list. The team conducted on-site visits of various NYU Langone campuses and analyzed operating room utilization data and financial data. Using evidence-based guidelines and practices, the team identified procedures that can be moved from inpatient sites to ambulatory care sites to increase revenue and operating room utilization. In its final report, the team identifies high volume procedures that can be safely performed in outpatient settings where patients are discharged the same day as the procedure. In addition, the team considers the financial ramifications of moving procedures to outpatient settings, and the impact on quality and patient safety.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year

SUPPORTING ASSESSMENT OF THE TANZANIA COUNTRY PROGRAM

Client
WORLD BANK III
Faculty
Paul Smoke
Team
Andrea Guerrero, Kevin Irving, Cassidy McIntyre

The World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) provides objective assessments on the Bank’s development projects and objectives. IEG enlisted a Capstone team to assess the impact of the Bank’s development projects on resilient spatial transformation and land use in Tanzania. IEG and the team selected physical and social indicators—including road connectivity, transportation network enhancements, and building development in addition to available data on poverty levels, household income, GDP, malaria rates, and household roofs—and used these indicators to analyze the impacts of World Bank projects in Tanzania from 2012 to 2022. To understand the extent of the Bank’s contribution to these indicators, the team pulled a list of projects and funding from 2012 to 2022 and compared it to current Landsat imagery and relevant socioeconomic factors. In addition, the team conducted interviews with Bank staff, government officials, and local individuals to gain an understanding of the reception of the Bank’s programs over the ten-year study period. The team’s final deliverable is a collection of reviews and analyses based on its research to inform the client’s forthcoming evaluation report.

Focus Areas
Capstone Year