Performing Assessments

Growing Knowledge, Designing Purpose

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We document your current situation in measurable terms that help your organization or program improve. We specialize in gathering qualitative data to help you understand your customer’s story and to improve the customer experience and outcomes.

Recent Projects:

  • Human Services Assessment - City of Edmonds, WA 2021-2022

  • SNAP & Other Benefits Landscape Assessment - Feeding America, 2021

  • CalFresh Regulations Redesign and Relaunch Project - California Department of Social Services, 2020 - 2021

  • Documentation of Pandemic-EBT -Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2020

  • Economic Impact Payment (EIP) Project – Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2020

  • Evaluation of SNAP Employment and Training Pilots - Mathematica Policy Research, Fresno County Department of Social Services, 2015-2021

  • Community Needs Assessment - City of Roseville, CA, October 2019 – May 2020

  • Assessment of Pre-Release Best Practices - Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2018-2019

  • CalFresh and CalWORKS Overpayment Assessment and Action Planning - California Department of Social Services, 2017-2019

  • Assessment of Homelessness - City of Edmonds, WA, 2018

  • Community Assessment Survey - City of Burien, WA, 2018

Project Spotlight: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training Pilots Evaluation, 2015-2021

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, is an essential work support program for low-income people and families. SNAP’s Employment and Training (E&T) program can provide SNAP participants with crucial education, training, and support services to assist them in gaining quality employment and economic self-sufficiency. In 2015, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (UDSA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) launched a Congressionally mandated rigorous, longitudinal evaluation of innovative pilots designed to increase employment and earnings among SNAP E&T participants, authorizing grants for 10 demonstration projects throughout the country.

Through a subcontract with Mathematica Policy Research (MPR), Koné Consulting is working closely with one of these grantees in Fresno County, California. We are monitoring, collecting data, and providing technical assistance to the grantee as it proceeds through the major phases of their pilot: planning and evaluation design; initial implementation and random assignment; assessment of key measures; and full implementation and evaluation. The evaluation includes: a random-assignment impact analysis to identify what works and for whom; an implementation analysis to document the context and operations of each pilot; participation analysis to examine service up-take and impact on SNAP participation; and a benefit-cost analysis to determine return on investment.

Through the course of this work Koné Consulting conducts regular check-ins with all pilot stakeholders. We also perform regular monitoring site visits that involve qualitative data gathering through observations of grantee operations, shadowing key staff, holding roundtable discussions across multiple sites. We regularly collect quantitative data pertaining to enrollment and service up-take to help assess project performance and program participants’ progress through the service delivery funnel. Koné Consulting also collects data through semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders that take place multiple times throughout the life of the project.

The prime contractor for this evaluation is MPR, and other partners include MDRC, Insight Policy Research, and Decision Information Resources.