The Colorado Lab is excited to have been selected to provide research and evaluation technical assistance to the evaluation staff at the Employment and Benefits Division (EBD) of the Office of Economic Security at the Colorado Department of Human Services. EBD administers Colorado Works (TANF) and Colorado Refugee Services Program, employment programs like ReHire Colorado and Colorado Works Subsidized Training and Employment Program, and Adult Financial Programs like Aid to the Needy and Disabled. In addition to supporting EBD in designing and implementing statutorily-required evaluations, the Colorado Lab will help division staff develop the internal capacity to leverage the available data to most effectively inform policy and practice. Areas of potential support include reviewing existing data and determining the type of evaluation design to fit that data; recommending changes to existing data collection structures; making recommendations on methodology and design decisions, including procedures for analyzing differences between treatment and comparison groups and addressing threats to validity; and demonstrating how to conduct those procedures utilizing existing EBD data using R or SPSS software, as relevant. 

To learn more, contact Dr. Kristin Klopfenstein.