101 Days of Community Psychology
I’m a community psychologist by training/degree, though like most quasi-academics, my portfolio and interests aren’t constrained to one field. This is the reality for community psychology. It is extremely broad from a content and methodological standpoint. However, it’s really important to stay on top of recently developments and trends, so I wanted to take a…
Wouldn’t mama be proud? A sentiment analysis of Elliott Smith lyrics
I’ve been an Elliott Smith kick this past month. Although I was one of the lucky ones to see him live (back in 1998 at the now-defunct Trocadero in Philly), his music really didn’t click for me until I was in my mid-30s. My key hypothesis: It’s not just sad bastard music. Smith had some…
Making Sense of Data in Practical and Collaborative Settings
When working in community-based settings, there is often a reluctance to engage in evaluation. I generally try to emphasize three main points at the beginning of collaborations. Data is everywhere. There are many ways that we can understand what is happening in our communities. Sometimes, we put out surveys to ask people about their beliefs…
Not Another Implementation Barriers and Facilitation Post!
I think if I read another “barriers and facilitators” article about implementation, I might conk right out here at my desk. There was one just this morning! Hell, here’s one from just one week prior! The reality is that these articles are all too common. Broadly, I pretty sure that I’ve the read sentence, “A…
Fitter, Happier, More Productive. Some words on Weiner el al (2020)’s “Measuring Readiness for Implementation”
Stop the presses! A readiness-measure review paper came out this morning in Implementation Research and Practice, a brand new journal from the SIRC folks focusing on implementation issues in behavioral health. Bryan Weiner had a readiness measure review paper about 12 years ago that was extremely influential in my own thinking on how readiness can…
“Let’s just kick the ball around.” A first-time soccer coach & implementation
Update 4.15.21. And it’s not Spring 2021, and soccer is back. I’ve got a new cohort of U5 kids we’ve been having a lot of fun. I’m certainly a better coach than when I started. There’s something to this experiential learning. Original post below! Another post I’m porting over. Man, it would be such a…
The Participatory Paradox of Objective Measures
This is a cross post from my old job. Just preserving it here for posterity. I slightly edited it to bring it current. Rewriting history and all of that. As long as I’ve known about evaluation, I’ve known about David Fetterman. Together with my doctoral mentor, Abe Wanderman, they developed the field of empowerment evaluation…
Rock Star Excess or Quality Assurance?
Hands down, this has always been the best story of Quality Assurance and monitoring I’ve ever heard. The general background: in the 1980s, the David Lee Roth-fronted Van Halen had a reputation for rock star excess. Think the broad stereotypes of trashing hotel rooms, making outrageous demands, et cetera, et cetera. They also put on…
First out of the gate.
So this is the relaunch of Dawn Chorus. For the past ten years or so, I’ve been working with a group out of South Carolina. In the way that bands sometimes grow apart over creative direction, so did that group. I’ve taken a really cool portfolio of projects with me to restart and refocus on…
