Virginia Substance Use Prevention

Since 2014, Omni has led evaluation, capacity building, and strategic planning across the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services' SAMHSA-funded initiatives—supporting over 40 grantee sites through technical assistance, training, and data-driven planning that have positioned Virginia as a national leader in substance use prevention.

Client

Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS)

Project type

Evaluation

Technical Assistance

Strategic Planning

Date

2014 - Present

Key Links

Full Project

SUPTRS Annual Report (most recent)

Statewide Prevention Needs Assessment

Project Objective

Strengthen evaluation capacity with all 40 grantee sites through hands-on support and training in data collection and system utilization.
Advance strategic planning and data-driven decision-making to align state prevention funding with priority prevention outcomes.
Design and implement a mixed-method, statewide, and cross-site evaluation using epidemiological data to assess health disparities and track progress.

Project Description

Since 2014, Omni has partnered with Virginia’s DBHDS as their evaluator across several multi-site, statewide, and project evaluations.

‍Omni provides state level and multi-site (40 sites) evaluation and capacity building for Virginia’s SAMHSA-funded Substance Use Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Services Block Grant (SUPTRS/SUBG) project. This work has included:

state level needs assessment;
partnering on strategic thought leadership to align prevention funding formulas in support of priority prevention outcomes;
supporting each of the 40 funded grantees in needs assessment, logic modeling, and evaluation planning;
provision of proactive and responsive technical assistance (TA) in support of capacity building, data system utilization, and evaluation;
and overall cross-site monitoring and initiative-level evaluation to examine impact on substance use prevention specific goals.

Omni operated in a similar capacity from 2016-2020 for Virginia’s SAMHSA-funded PFS grant to reduce prescription drug misuse and heroin use, including:

design and implementation of mixed-methods statewide and cross-site (9 sites) evaluation;
evaluation-related training and TA to sub-recipient communities and DBHDS; and
leadership of the state-level epidemiological planning to identify and understand health disparities that exist and analyze indicator data at state and local levels to assess progress.

Throughout both the SABG and PFS projects, Omni has utilized several evaluation methods and drawn heavily on a variety of data collection practices including focus groups, interviews, surveys, and epidemiological assessments. We have implemented these practices ourselves and trained sub-recipients on implementing them in their communities and using the resulting data.

As a result of the strategic planning work Omni has conducted with the DBHDS Office of Behavioral Health Wellness, Virginia has become a national leader in data-driven prevention, and the capacity of the prevention workforce continues to grow through Omni's responsive training and technical assistance.

Among the impacts of Omni's partnership with DBHDS of more than a decade is the realignment of state prevention funding formulas in support of priority prevention outcomes, as well as supporting each of the 40 funded grantees in local needs assessment efforts to inform strategy selection and evaluation planning. We have also served as a strategic thought partner to DBHDS on state-level needs assessment, strategic planning, and strategy implementation.