CAI seeks to support the ongoing creation of equitable systems of care in the community MHSU sector, through evaluation which enables and encourages systems change.
In alignment with its values, all evaluation work at CAI is in service of health equity, which requires reducing unnecessary and unjust differences among individuals so that everyone, regardless of income, social status, race, gender, education and physical environment has the opportunity to reach their fullest health potential. CAI seeks to support progress towards health equity through evaluation by engaging and supporting individuals most impacted by problems as key stakeholders while working to build the evaluation capacity of grantees, people with lived or living experience, and the sector in general. By centering the experience and expertise of PWLLE through participatory approaches, CAI is committed to finding new ways of working together to highlight community solutions to complex problems. In doing so, CAI is working to improve understanding of the unique role, function and value of the community sector in the continuum of care for mental health and substance use.
Evaluation processes supported by CAI incorporate opportunities for knowledge exchange and knowledge translation to enhance community-based organizational planning efforts, in support of continuous learning and quality improvement. CAI will continue to approach evaluation design and conduct, through a mix of third-party evaluators and in-house methods. Suitability of approach and relative need to evaluate impacts of funding streams is applied on a case by case basis in partnership with collaborators.
See some of our evaluation results and resources below, or visit our individual evaluation pages for more information: