Joliet Junior College retained Evergreen Solutions to evaluate the College’s Emergency Management for Higher Education Grant. The EMHE grant program was designed to develop, or review and improve, and fully integrate campus-based all-hazards emergency management planning efforts. Evergreen conducted an outside evaluation for the College’s Emergency Management for Higher Education Grant over a two-year period to determine whether the overall goals and specific objectives of the grant were being met. The College’s specific EMHE grant program goals were diverse, and included revising and developing emergency management plans, conducting advanced emergency training, and adding emergency response equipment to the College’s inventory.
Evergreen worked closely with the College’s project director to establish effective evaluation criteria and met quarterly throughout the two-year grant period to evaluate progress, aid with grant reporting, and ensure grant goals were being met. Additionally, Evergreen used prior EMHE grant evaluation experience to design and disseminate methods of evaluation appropriate to goals, objectives, and outcomes of grant projects. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and tracked for each of the project’s objectives and measurements through focus groups and interviews with students, staff, and faculty; comprehensive assessments; and instruments designed to evaluate all training including NIMS and other programs. To conclude evaluation activities, Evergreen composed the final summative evaluation at the end of the 24 month grant period.