This project was designed to support the Chicago Hospital Working Group (C-HWG) in completing the foundational activities needed to design and implement a future evaluation of C-HWG’s violence intervention programs and/or services.
In response to rising violence in Chicago, a city-wide group of hospitals (C-HWG) was established to coordinate their respective hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs), which provide trauma-informed care to victims of violence during their recovery in a hospital-based setting by delivering both medical services provided by hospital staff and additional social services and safety planning through hospital partnerships with community-based stakeholders. The current project was designed to support the C-HWG in completing the foundational activities needed to design and implement a future evaluation of their violence intervention programs and/or services. The project includes a formative evaluation to guide program design and data collection efforts across the group and an evaluability assessment to determine whether the membership of the C-HWG is ready for a rigorous evaluation. Consistent with these goals, NORC at the University of Chicago coordinated communication and program development efforts across the hospitals, documented the characteristics of the intended victim populations targeted by the programs and the specific services provided, examined existing measures, and considered new measures for assessing intervention outcomes, as well as identified barriers to success and support for hospitals for a future evaluation. This report summarizes the project activities and accomplishments from the past 2 years (2020 and 2021) and details the study team’s findings from the formative evaluation and evaluability assessment. 12 exhibits