Program Evaluation Center

The Program Evaluation Center (PEC) was established in 2005 within the Institute for Nonprofit Agencies under the umbrella of the Buffalo Center for Social Research at UB School of Social Work. In particular, the PEC works in partnership with human service professions, non-profit agencies and other providers to integrate evaluation strategies into practice and to enhance their capacity to undertake prospective evaluations of their interventions. These evaluation strategies are currently being used in several human service organizations in the USA, United Kingdom and Finland where the Program Evaluation Center has evaluation projects.

Aims of the Program Evaluation Center:

• Build collaborative relationships between practitioners, academics, students, non-profit organizations and other providers of social work and human services;
• Improve evaluation practices and methods within social work and other human service professions;
• Increase evaluation use in social work/human service practice, including utilization of the best possible knowledge from research;
• Enable and encourage service providers to evaluate their own practice;
• Promote evaluation as a profession that has much to offer agencies and their workers;
• Support the contribution of evaluation to the generation of theory and knowledge about effective human action, including social work practice;
• Work within professional organizations such as Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), American Evaluation Association, and European Evaluation Society.

The Program Evaluation Center’s current evaluation projects include:

• Evaluation of interventions at Gateway-Longview, Buffalo, NY.
• Evaluation of interventions at Erie County Mental Health Association, Buffalo, NY.
• Evaluation of Ken-Ton Family Support Center, Buffalo, NY.
• Evaluation of UK government’s Children’s Fund Projects in Lancashire (in collaboration with Center for Evaluation Studies, University of Huddersfield and Nationwide Children’s Research Institute, UK)
• Evaluation of Moray Council’s Children’s Services, Scotland, UK
• Evaluation of Helsinki Social Services Department, Finland

For further information contact:

Mansoor A. F. Kazi, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor and Director
Program Evaluation Center
University at Buffalo
School of Social Work
232B Parker Hall
Buffalo, NY 14214-8004
(716) 829-3991 (ext. 161)
(716) 829-3992
mkazi@buffalo.edu