Feedback and Lessons Learned from CBO Program Award Recipients

TAB D: Facilitator Recruitment Method

Introduction

All 10 active CBO Program Cooperative Agreements (U3U and U3S Activity Codes) with Award Periods of Performance ending 6/29/2023 or later, through 10/31/2023 will be invited to apply to participate in the facilitation of focus groups. The following established guidelines will be shared:

HRSA seeks individuals who are willing to facilitate virtual focus groups and/or key informational interviews to assist in the qualitative evaluation of the CBO Program. As outlined below, the CBO Program evaluation team will develop materials, but is seeking external, objective facilitators to lead the discussions with CBO awardees. Candidates must have prior focus group facilitation experience.

Focus Group Facilitation

The CBO evaluation team anticipates holding up to ten (10) virtual, one-hour focus groups with five (5) to ten (10) participants each. One focus group will be facilitated in Spanish. The focus groups will be held between late April through June 2023. All focus groups will be recorded and transcribed (not the responsibility of the facilitator).

Tentative focus group themes include community-based workforce, outreach and education strategies, health equity, and working with specific subpopulations of focus (i.e., pediatric, adolescent, and young adult populations, rural populations, immigrant populations, etc.).

The facilitator will:

• Agree to facilitate at least one virtual focus group(s) using Zoom or Microsoft Teams

• Follow the focus group protocol developed by the CBO evaluation team

• Attend a training by the CBO evaluation team and debrief with the CBO evaluation team after each focus group, highlighting what worked well and what should be improved for future focus groups

The CBO Program evaluation team will:

• Identify focus group themes

• Develop focus group protocols

• Handle focus group logistics, including identifying and recruiting participants, obtaining informed consent, and scheduling

• Transcribe each focus group, using the recording and NVivo software

• Analyze focus group data

Facilitation Recruitment Email

Hello Cooperative Agreement Awardees,

Thank you for all you have done and continue to do providing outreach, education, and COVID-19 vaccination support for underserved communities across the country!

As the CBO Program begins to wind down, HRSA would like to take this opportunity to hear feedback from you and your peers on the CBO Program, your lessons learned in building vaccine confidence, your successes and challenges, and how HRSA can support potential future programs of this type. HRSA is planning to conduct a series of ten (10) virtual focus groups to gather this feedback from CBO Program awardees, sub-awardees, and Community Outreach Workers between May and July 2023. As Cooperative Agreement recipients and trusted messengers to your peer community-based organizations, we are asking for your assistance in facilitating these focus groups.

Please let us know if you have staff with prior experience facilitating focus groups who are willing to facilitate one or more focus groups during your current award project period. Your eligible staff are welcome to facilitate between 1-3 focus groups. HRSA has identified three primary themes, with the opportunity for multiple focus groups under each theme below. Please note that HRSA will attempt to match available facilitators based on topic preference and availability, but that may not be possible in all cases.

• Project Directors – To collect feedback and insight on how CBO Program activities were planned, executed, including mid-course adjustments, as well as feedback about organizational capacity for implementing a program like this.

• Community Outreach Workers – To collect feedback and insight from the Community Health Workers, Outreach Workers, Promotores, and others directly engaged with community members to hear about their experience, training, lessons learned, and capacity to do this work. These sessions can be conducted in English, Spanish, and other languages (if needed and pending facilitator availability).

• Special Populations – To collect feedback and insight from CBO Programs serving specific sub-populations to understand how awardees tailored messages to reach populations, gather lessons learned for future community health education efforts, etc.

The HRSA Cooperative Agreement funding mechanism is flexible, which allows HRSA to request new activities that support the objective of this program be completed under the award. This includes HRSA’s ability to redirect CBO Program award costs to cover facilitation costs of these virtual sessions. You participation as a facilitator is voluntary. CBO Program award funds can be used to support your staff time for facilitating the focus group(s), including reasonable preparation time.

HRSA will develop focus group protocols, recruit participants, and schedule, record and transcribe the sessions. However, we believe your understanding of the program activities and connection to your communities will foster invaluable feedback to inform potential future HRSA programs of this type.

If you (or your staff) are interested in participating as a facilitator in this project, please email [email protected], including your name, contact information, and a brief summary of your experience. We will follow up with next steps once reviewed.

If you have additional questions or would like to set up a time to meet and discuss this opportunity further, please email Fraser Byrne ([email protected]) and your Project Officer.