Substance Use Prevention & Treatment
Partnering for Healthy Communities
Substance use prevention and treatment organizations are integral to individual and community health, well-being, and safety. It is essential that these organizations have access to quality data that can inform decision-making, ensure program effectiveness, and secure resources to maximize their impacts.
EVALCORP has been partnering with substance use prevention and treatment organizations for over twenty years. The organizations we collaborate with leverage data provided by program evaluations to document the impact they make to reduce substance use in their communities. Our needs assessment services help agencies better understand client demographics, needs, challenges, and resource barriers. We also collect and analyze data to help organizations grow and develop programs and initiatives through strategic planning.
Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Expertise
Government agencies and nonprofit organizations focused on substance use rely on EVALCORP to demonstrate their effectiveness, plan their service delivery, and determine community needs. Organizations use data we collect and analyze to secure funding to expand specific services and treatment programs. For example, we provided one of our clients with data on opioid overdose deaths among justice-involved individuals in their county, which enabled them to seek funding to expand treatment within County jails.
The data gathered by EVALCORP informs decision-making, leading to improved program effectiveness. We have worked with substance use treatment and prevention providers in a wide variety of settings, from small rural counties to large urban centers each with diverse communities and individualized needs. Our consultants are trained in a culturally responsive approach that improves representation throughout program evaluation, needs assessment, and strategic planning processes.
Our team provides support for complex projects that address substance use across overlapping systems including justice, mental health, youth development, healthcare, and housing. For example, we have partnered with first responders and community stakeholders working to enhance treatment for overdoses through SAMHSA’s First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act Grants (FR-CARA) program. As another example, we have worked with agencies that provide services for both substance use and mental health issues through California’s Community Assistance, Recovery & Empowerment (CARE) Act. We have also worked with organizations conducting tobacco prevention programs to support public health among youth/young adults and adults.
We have experience providing evaluation and strategic planning for projects supported through Opioid Settlement Funding (OSF). We apply a Results-Based Accountability (RBA) approach to understand how OSF-funded activities impact local population outcomes. This means working with funded system partners to identify and evaluate appropriate program metrics to track, ensuring alignment with local, state, federal, and litigation guidelines.
Across the services we provide, our consultants leverage their collective knowledge of a wide range of service areas to help organizations address substance use and its co-occurring issues.
Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Clients
A select list of our clients include:
- California Friday Night Live Partnership
- City of Pasadena Health Department
- Day One
- Healthy Rural California
- Kern County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services
- Kings County Behavioral Health
- Monterey County Behavioral Health
- National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence
- Orange County Health Care Agency
- Pinellas County Department of Human Services
- San Benito County
- Solano County Department of Health and Social Services
- Ventura County Behavioral Health
- Ventura County Community Corrections Partnership
- Ventura County Probation Agency
- Ventura County Sheriff’s Office
- Ventura County Turning Point Foundation
- Vista Community Clinic
- Waymakers
- See our full client list
Case Study: Pinellas County, Florida: Opioid Response and Treatment Program Evaluation
Client: Pinellas County Human Services, Florida
Service Type: Evaluation
Context: Pinellas County Human Services partnered with EVALCORP to lead evaluation and data strategy for its opioid response initiatives, funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) First Responders-Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (FR-CARA) program. As Florida’s most densely populated county, Pinellas County sought to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths, strengthen naloxone distribution, and improve connections to treatment and recovery services for individuals at high risk of overdose.
Approach
EVALCORP developed and implemented a comprehensive evaluation framework designed to support both SAMHSA accountability as well as continuous program improvement. Using a mixed-methods approach, we designed data collection systems, surveys, focus groups, interviews, and tracking tools to assess program implementation, participant experiences, naloxone access, and treatment outcomes. In addition to evaluating existing services, EVALCORP partnered with staff to design and test a targeted intervention to reduce the time between initial outreach and treatment connection. Drawing on evidence from the literature and analysis of program data, the intervention introduced a structured engagement protocol for peer specialists and case managers while testing how different outreach strategies influenced participant outcomes. Our team also tracked key variables, such as housing status and insurance coverage, to better understand how these factors affect a person’s ability to connect with treatment.
Impacts Achieved
EVALCORP’s ongoing feedback approach supported Pinellas County in making data-informed adjustments throughout the grant period, refining outreach and better targeting naloxone training to individuals most likely to respond during an overdose emergency. The structured engagement intervention recommendations increased treatment connection rates from 12% to 22%. The evaluation also demonstrated that persistent outreach is a meaningful driver of successful treatment connection.