Welcome to the Strengthening What Works initiative, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). This initiative will support the evaluation of program activities that focus on prevention of IPV in immigrant and refugee communities in the United States. The selected projects will engage in a collaborative process of evaluation capacity-building and project evaluation.

Strengthening What Works seeks to:

• Identify promising practices in intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention in immigrant and refugee populations in the United States;
• Strengthen evaluation capacity and skills of organizations addressing IPV;
• Provide an understanding of the processes and outcomes of the projects; and
• Enhance program sustainability.

RWJF defines Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) as actual or threatened acts of physical, sexual, psychological, financial and verbal harm, including stalking, by a current or former partner, boyfriend, girlfriend or someone wanting a romantic relationship. It seeks to support programs that use creative, innovative, and promising approaches that address the social, economic, and cultural factors that prevent IPV in refugee and immigrant communities.

Potential benefits for participation in this initiative include: improved organizational skills to plan and conduct program evaluation; increased ability to identify and use evaluation information for program improvement; increased opportunity to understand and use program successes to support sustainability; and enhanced ability to present information to the community that will further enhance program transparency and strengthen community partnerships.

RWJF has contracted with LTG Associates, Inc. to provide technical assistance (TA) in evaluation and program evaluation for the selected grantees. For more information about LTG Associates, please visit www.ltgassociates.com.

The Program Co-Directors are Nathaniel Tashima, Ph.D., and Cathleen Crain, M.A., LTG Associates, Inc.

The Deputy Director is Alberto Bouroncle, Ph.D., LTG Associates, Inc.

The Program Officer is Wendy Yallowitz, M.S.W., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Program Associate is Marianna Sachse, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.