Business (For- and Not-for-Profit)

Appendix F23

Round 2
Community Based Organization Interview Guide

Community Based Organization Interview Guide

Round 2: Early Operations

Community based organizations (CBOs) have been recruited by the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to support the HIP initiative by providing information and training to HIP participants. The Abt team will interview the HSC and key CBOs in Hampden County, Massachusetts, the location of the HIP. The CBOs that will be interviewed will be agreed upon between Abt, FNS and DTA. The purpose of Round 2 interviews with local office staff is to document the way that HIP is implemented.

For Round 2, there will be one interview with the HSC and at each CBO location agreed upon between the Abt Team and FNS. The interviews will take place approximately 2-3 months after all HIP participants have begun earning incentives, focusing on early operations of the HIP initiative and how the CBO is supporting HIP participants.

Interviews will include the following questions. Additional, follow-up questions are anticipated, to clarify or expand responses.

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 90 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Office of Research and Analysis, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302 ATTN: PRA (0584-xxxx). Do not return the completed form to this address.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Date and Time of Interview

2. Location of Interview

3. Name(s) and Title(s) of Respondent(s)

4. Describe your involvement with HIP activities since the previous interview. Check all that apply.

 Participation in the HIP Steering Committee

 Providing retailers with information on HIP

 Preparing your staff for HIP

 Preparing facilities for HIP participant training or counseling

 Counseling HIP participants on HIP

 Providing nutrition counseling to HIP participants

 Providing DTA with reports or information on levels of HIP involvement

 Other (please define)

1. How has your involvement in HIP changed since the previous interview?

HIP INFORMATION

5. Since the previous interview, how you have been provided with ongoing information or updates concerning HIP, such as meetings, conference calls, e-mails, and mailings?

   1. How frequent are these interactions?

   2. Describe what works best about these methods and what could be improved.

6. Describe the HIP materials that have been provided to you, including what is good about the materials and what could be improved.

7. Describe the areas of HIP that are hardest to understand, such as your organization’s role, how and when incentives are given to participants, what food items are eligible for incentives, how to check-out at the grocers, or the random assignment of participation.

   1. Describe what could be done, such as changing procedures, clearer instructions, more information, better training or improved materials, to make this area easier to understand.

HIP OPERATIONS

8. Describe whether you or your organization were sufficiently prepared for HIP to begin or if further support was necessary.

   1. Describe the activities that have been the most and the least effective in preparing for and supporting HIP.

   2. Describe issues, if any, which have arisen in preparing for or supporting HIP and how these issues were resolved.

HIP COORDINATION

9. If you’ve been involved with the HIP Steering Committee (HSC), when did you start participating and what has been your role in the workgroup? If not, skip to question 10.

   1. Describe what the HSC has been tasked to do (such as retailer recruitment, providing suggestions for procedures/policies, or providing suggestions for HIP and nutrition training) and whether it is accomplishing these tasks.

   2. Describe how often the HSC meets and whether this is sufficient for accomplishing HSC tasks.

   3. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of the HSC, such as the ability to provide insight into the community or the inability to influence processes or procedures.

10. Describe the level and type of coordination that has occurred between you or your organization and other stakeholders since HIP became operational. Check all that apply.

 Massachusetts DTA Central Office

 Local DTA offices

 SNAP retailers

 Participants

 Other (please define)

1. What has been the impact or result of your coordination with these stakeholders?

2. What has been the most and the least time consuming about your coordination with these stakeholders?

1. In regard to HIP, are there ways that your organization could further support these stakeholder groups?

2. In regard to HIP, are there ways that your organization could be provided with additional assistance from these stakeholder groups?

HIP READINESS

13. Other than previously discussed, what issues, if any, have been encountered during HIP operations and how were these issues resolved?

14. What changes could be made to improve HIP operations?

15. What key lessons have you learned from your experiences to date?

NON-REIMBURSED EXPENDITURES

Request time sheets kept by the CBO, if any and review to ensure that the costs are understood before leaving the interview.