Bridging Science and Practice: The Integrated Model of Community-Based Evaluation (IMCBE)

A trend in community-based evaluation studies is to include everyone affected by the work, the community, administrators and participants, in their design and implementation. This concept has been accepted by communities and community evaluators, but a concern persists that the scientific integrity, reliability, and validity of these studies are compromised. To address these concerns we present both the multi-conceptual and hands-on practical aspects of the Integrated Model of Community Based Evaluation (IMCBE) and illustrate the utility of the IMCBE with the case example of the Sickle Cell Disease Association of the Piedmont‟s (Greensboro, North Carolina) Home Health Study (HHS). The IMCBE is conceptually sound and joins social scientific rigor with an understanding of the elements essential to addressing community members‟ and agencies‟ need for meaningful outcomes that determine the efficiency and effectiveness of their efforts. The IMCBE promotes a “best fit” approach of adapting the evaluation to the unique problem or intervention to be examined.