YELLOW RIBBON REINTEGRATION PROGRAM CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT & METRICS

This proposed multi-faceted project addresses the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program's (YRRP) overarching goals of providing evidence-informed support to both program evaluation and improvement efforts. The Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State (Clearinghouse) has been in a six-year partnership with the YRRP; therefore, some of the work specified in this RFA represents a continuation of work that is ongoing (e.g., curriculum review and development, identify best practices, and make recommendations through the analysis of data). Other work specified in this RFA represents opportunities for continued refinement and expansion of the evaluation approach (e.g., develop, review, and analyze evaluation efforts). Whether an existing effort or a new endeavor, the Clearinghouse has staff already placed in critical roles (e.g., research scientists, research assistants, and learning design specialists) and has existing lines of communication and workflows with YRRP personnel, Service-level personnel, and contract personnel. As such, the Clearinghouse can commence activities immediately and will work diligently to be successful throughout the process with no down time needed for hiring personnel or creating an operations infrastructure. The proposal to collect attendee class interest information prior to event attendance represents an exciting refinement to program delivery, which is anticipated to reduce burden on attendees and increase efficiency of continued curriculum review, refinement, and development efforts and provide another indicator of program impact. In addition, the proposal to collect data on utilization and impact of vetted online resources represents an opportunity to assess program impact with respect to the resources that are provided.