School Quality and Housing Prices - A 2009 study, funded by the William Penn Foundation, that measures school quality in Philadelphia and quantifies its impact on the value of Philadelphia residential real estate.
Program Assessment
Protecting and Restoring Neighborhoods in Today's Changing Environment - Presentation at the 2009 Wachovia Regional Foundation Grantee Conference.
Market Scan of Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia - Research brief for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.
Our program assessment services are designed to help clients structure and refine programs to become more efficient and effective. We help determine how current products and programs achieve policy objectives or can be improved to increase success.
To each project we bring a powerful combination of public management expertise, rigorous data analysis and sophisticated spatial display skills. The data-driven solutions we provide are clear and practical, ensuring ease in implementation. We also help identify the measurements to track and assess program outcomes.
The following are some examples of the types of program assessment services we can provide:
Estimating Supermarket Access
TRF can help estimate supermarket access, measuring need within the context of market viability. Using this methodology, TRF can identify concentrations of consumer market demand, thus pointing to places where the problem of unequal access to fresh food retailers can best be addressed. In addition, based upon TRF’s Pennsylvania experience, TRF can create a model for estimating direct outcomes, including the number of supermarkets, jobs, square feet, and dollars leveraged if a similar program were initiated.
Data Analysis and Capacity Building
TRF can help public and private clients understand how best to target their investments and to build capacity. For example, the Wachovia Regional Foundation enlists TRF’s support to evaluate grant applications and provide review and comment on proposals. TRF also provides training and technical assistance to its planning and development grantees, on how to use PolicyMap to systematically and objectively gather information about their communities.
Evaluating Education Programs
TRF can help educators assess specific programs that benefit low-income students. For example, in
Quantifying Impact
TRF has a strong track record of assessing the impact of its own investments and that of private and public investors. For example, TRF assessed the impact of our supermarket financing initiative, quantifying the need for subsidizing supermarket developments by comparing location-dependent start-up costs for supermarkets operating in distressed communities to those operating in stable communities. The research was funded by the CDFI Fund.
Custom Analytics
TRF provides custom analytics in concert with TRF’s PolicyMap. For example, TRF is working with the NeighborWorks America to provide 10 organizations participating in the Success Measures pilot with strategic advisory services on what local data and address level data is useful in evaluating the local real estate market.
Questions? Contact PolicySolutions@trfund.com or call 215-574-5800.