Research and Evaluation for Public Health Programs
Program Design and Evaluation Services (PDES) is a unique research and evaluation unit within both the Multnomah County Health Department and the Oregon Public Health Division. The PDES team of experts provides a full range of professional services to design, evaluate, and refine public health programs, and communicates its findings through publications, presentations, and reports.
Featured Story
PDES investigates methods for measuring social
resilience
PDES collaborated with the Climate Change
Program at Oregon Public Health Division on a project related to social
resilience (e.g., community’s level of social cohesion or social capital). That program
recognizes the scientific evidence indicating social resilience is a key
protective factor, enabling a community to effectively prepare, respond and
adapt to climate stressors in healthy and innovative ways.
As a way to begin understanding how to invest in social
infrastructure, the Climate Change
Program asked PDES to lead a project
investigating methods for measuring social resilience. The project included a
literature review across several fields of study including sociology, community
psychology and disaster preparedness and the development of an annotated
bibliography and a “menu” of indicator categories, measures, and potential data
sources. The findings help to illuminate next steps for the Oregon Climate and
Health Resilience Plan, but may also be of use to an array of public health
programs working to assess and build community-level social resilience to other
(non-climate related) stressors.
Learn more
Social Resilience Project
Oregon Public Health Division Climate Change