The California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) was a five-year, $35 million project funded by California’s Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). This statewide initiative aimed to match community-driven mental health solutions with rigorous data for 35 pilot projects throughout the state. Seven community organizations were funded to serve each of five communities that have historically been underserved, excluded, and provided with substandard mental health care in California: African Americans, Latines, Asians & Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and LGBTQ+ people. The project was administered by the California Office of Health Equity (OHE) and was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of local mental health interventions through a rigorous, participatory community evaluation process.
LGBTQ Connection already had an internal evaluator, but contracted with Facente Consulting to provide more advanced statistical support for their quantitative evaluation. At the halfway point of the project, Facente Consulting reviewed raw data to assess data quality and study power. Our recommendations from this midpoint analysis led to improvements in data collection procedures. At the close of the data collection period, Facente Consulting analyzed the four years of data that had been collected, and provided a final comprehensive report of findings to LGBTQ Connection for internal use and submission to OHE.