MPowerment Detroit
This project was an 18-month process evaluation of a reputationally successful adaptation of The Mpowerment Project, an evidence-based intervention developed by Susan Kegeles, Robert Hayes, and Greg Rebchook of the University of California at San Francisco. The primary purposes of our evaluation was to describe MPowerment Detroit, characterize its similarity to the evidence-based model on which it is based, and document the rationale for departures from the original model. The evaluation also examined how well particular aspects of the program were implemented.
Several questions guided the evaluation:
1) What are the characteristics of the population that MPowerment Detroit serves?
2) How accurately do MPowerment Detroit’s systems of data collection reflect the program’s activities?
3) What activities comprise MPowerment Detroit and how are these activities carried out?
4) What aspects of the MPowerment Project model are included in current activities and why?
5) What aspects of the MPowerment Project model are excluded in current activities and why?
6) What activities have been added to the model and how and why did these evolve?
7) What is the quality of implementation of aspects of the original model in terms of faithfulness to the guidance on how the model ought to be implemented?
8) How similar or different is MPowerment Detroit’s ideological and theoretical beliefs about how best to prevent HIV among young men to the ideological and theoretical beliefs that informed the original program model?
The evaluation combined non-participant observation of Mpowerment Detroit’s activities over an 18-month period, interviews with Mpowerment Detroit’s members, and review of more than 400 program documents. The evaluation was funded by the Michigan AIDS Coalition.