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Strategic Planning, Research and Evaluation

Strategic Plans / Program Evaluation / Grant Evaluation
Business Plans / Focus Groups

Planning enables you to get to where you want to go. It takes time and effort but the payoff is well worth it— an organization or business whose employees, executives and board members are working in sync with a clearly laid out path toward achieving their goals.

The first step is to have a vision of your future destination. Whether you are just getting started or updating an existing plan, we will help you clarify your vision, mission and goals. Evaluating your progress lets you know if you got there and provides a way to improve your results.

We will analyze your operations including the roles of your employees, constituencies, external stakeholders and board. Then we will work with you to develop strategies to reach your destination.

Once you’ve implemented your strategies, we’ll evaluate your progress. Evaluation may be the end result, but it starts at the beginning. An essential component of a strategic plan is identifying specific outcomes and then methods to determine if you’ve achieved them.

Among the research tools we use are focus groups, executive interviews and surveys. Such research is essential to understanding how to deal with both external and internal influences. Focus groups are small discussion groups conducted by a trained facilitator. They are an effective and reliable method to gain a deeper understanding of the attitudes and perspectives of a target population.

Executive interviews provide access to the views and insights of key community stakeholders and leaders. These one-on-one interviews yield an in-depth understanding about an issue.

All of these research methods provide essential information for making decisions about strategic planning, strategic communication and evaluation.

Our Strategic Planning, Research and Evaluation clients include:

• Cascades East Area Health Education Center (AHEC) at St. Charles Medical Center
• Central Oregon Workforce Investment Board
• Community Action Team of Sisters
• Davis, Hibbitts & Midgall, Inc – Opinion Research
• Grant County Commission on Children & Families
• Portland Cable Access
• Longview Police Department
• The Trust for Public Land
• Meyer Memorial Trust
• Northwest Area Foundation
• Oregon Criminal Justice Commission
• Partnership to End Poverty
• Women’s Resource Center of Central Oregon