JRC’s research and consulting services are conducted by Dr. Jan Roehl, assisted by support staff and other experts on a contractual basis as needed.
   
  Grant writing and management  
 
  Dr. Roehl works with non-profit organizations, public agencies, and local units of government to obtain grant funding to support their organizational needs. Working closely with staff and other experts, Dr. Roehl is able to develop successful grant proposals of all sizes, covering a wide range of topics, and for a variety of funding sources. For example, in the past two years, she has helped secure a $5,000 local foundation grant to support a city’s community and youth events, a $300,000 state foundation grant to help a non-profit performing arts organization build organizational capacity, and a $2.5 million state agency grant to design and test a system for preventing stormwater runoff into biologically sensitive ocean waters. 
   
  Services offered:
 
  • Needs assessments to clarify organizational and department needs.
  • Searches for funding opportunities.
  • Project development and design.
  • Grant writing and submission.
  • Project management. 
   
  Areas of expertise: 
 
  • Grant applications may be developed in a very wide range of topics. In the past year, Dr. Roehl has written grants for a public-private Sustainable Communities project, organizational capacity building, a diesel generator for an Emergency Operations Center, trail development and habitat restoration, an interoperable communications system for 15 county law enforcement agencies, self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters, and stormwater runoff prevention.
   
  Research and evaluation  
 
  Dr. Roehl conducts independent studies for clients, such as community surveys on public safety and municipal services, an evaluation of a juvenile drug court, or a recidivism study of probationers. She collaborates with colleagues on major research projects, such as the recently completed study on assessing risk in domestic violence situations conducted in concert with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Safe Horizon, Inc., in New York City, and the current Weed and Seed evaluation.
   
  Services offered:
 
  • Evaluation design.
  • Instrument development and testing.
  • Surveys (mail, phone, or in-person).
  • Interviews (individual and group).
  • Data extraction from existing records.
  • Qualitative and quantitative analysis – specializing in qualitative interpretation, linking process activities to outcomes.
  • Writing, from grant proposals to final reports to journal articles.
   
  Areas of expertise: 
 
  • Criminal justice – public safety, crime prevention, community-based drug prevention, civil remedies, risk assessment in intimate partner violence.
  • Community policing.
  • Conflict resolution (e.g., mediation, arbitration) and courts, especially drug and other problem-solving courts.
  • Partnership-based programs, such as Weed and Seed, Community Partnerships for Drug Prevention, and the Strategic Approach to Community Safety Initiative (SACSI). 
   
   
  Management information systems
 
  JRC designs and develops simple management information systems for social service programs, based on readily-available Access software. Each MIS is a menu-driven program which presents on-screen forms for easy data entry and produces ready-made reports.
 


Sample screen capture of a JRC Access-based MIS

The systems are used for tracking client information and progress, reporting to management and clients, and self-evaluation.

More than three dozen drug courts across the U.S. are using JRC-development management information systems, and they have been adapted for mental health, DUI, family, dependency, and other problem-solving courts.

The prototype MIS for juvenile drug courts may be downloaded to your computer, then opened using Access.

 
 
   
  Services offered: 
 
  • Custom development of the management information system, with built-in queries to produce summary information and reports.
  • Training for staff in the use of the MIS; making changes in the system’s design, data entry screens, and built-in reports; writing queries; getting information out of the MIS for evaluation and other purposes.
  • Technical assistance in customizing the MIS, trouble shooting problems, self-evaluation.
   
  Fees 
   
  Research and consulting services that can be clearly defined and outlined, such as the development of a single application for a foundation or government agency, may be performed on a fixed fee basis. Other services are offered on an hourly basis, at $75/hour, with a range of estimated hours provided.