Research

The Burruss Institute worked with Wellspring Living, a nonprofit organization that delivers services and provides restoration programs for survivors of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, to update their evaluation plan and assess the impact of their residential and community programs, including the development of logic models for each program. Burruss employs a utilization-focused approach to ensure the evaluation process and findings are useful to program staff and funders. In addition, the Burruss Institute provided a fiscal year annual report in August of 2019 and a calendar year report in May 2020 to assess progress on program goals and objectives.

 

Fulton County government partnered with the Institute to conduct a survey of its residents as part of its efforts to measure performance on the six Strategic Priority Areas adopted by the Board of Commissioners. The Strategic Priority Areas outline the top-level outcomes that direct Fulton County’s efforts, that “All People” are safe, healthy, self-sufficient, have economic, cultural, and recreation opportunities, and trust their government. The survey of 1,053 residents was conducted from September 2019 to December 2019.

In an effort to better understand and provide assistance to the needs of low-income residents of their eight county service area, Tallatoona Community Action Partnership (TCAP) contracted with the Burruss Institute to conduct a needs assessment. The Institute surveyed TCAP’s community partners and clients in addition to collecting and analyzing data from secondary sources, such as the Census. The assessment highlighted areas of need based on data regarding poverty, education levels, employment, etc. The results of the surveys and secondary data were used to help Tallatoona Community Action Partnership update their services assisting low-income individuals and families in Bartow, Cobb, Douglas, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, and Polk County.

During 2020, Dr. Charity Butcher from the Political Science and International Affairs department, and affiliated with the School for Conflict Management, Peacebuilding, and Development, utilized the services of the Institute to conduct an online survey. The survey was administered to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Yemen. It was designed to gather information about collaboration between various NGOs and international partners on their humanitarian and development work in the country. With the aid of Dr. Butcher’s graduate research assistant, the survey was translated into Arabic to expand the survey to a wider pool of respondents.  The online survey collected responses from 86 professionals.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Institute conducted the Metro Atlanta Speaks Survey on behalf of the Atlanta Regional Commission. The telephone survey gathered the opinions of over 5,000 randomly selected residents across 13 counties and the city of Atlanta on a number of quality of life issues and other special topics, including residential redevelopment, housing affordability and workforce training. Each year, the public release of the survey’s results coincides with the State of the Region breakfast hosted by the ARC. The results are disseminated in various media outlets, and the ARC creates an extensive interactive online tool which can be used to review results for specific questions across selected geographies and demographic subgroups using data tables provided by the Institute. 

The Institute assisted the Atlanta Harm Reduction Coalition (AHRC) in the evaluation of two grants in 2019. AHRC works with individuals who engage in high-risk behaviors by providing access to wellness and health services. The Healthcare Georgia Foundation grant evaluation measured whether a program for African-American women in the Atlanta area increased HIV awareness, increased the number of HIV positive African-American women identified and linked to care, and increased access to HIV prevention knowledge and skills for high risk African-American women. The second grant program, ViiV Positive Action Community Grants, provides organizations with the means to reach people not currently benefitting from existing HIV support services or programs. The Institute conducted an evaluation of AHRC’s Mobile Health Unit, community events, and drop-in service center.