CONTACTS:

Steve Palackdharry

Communications Manager

Southwest Solutions

313.297.1374

—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—

John Van Camp honored for southwest solutions’ program evaluations work

DETROIT, June 16, 2009 —— John Van Camp, president of Southwest Solutions, is the winner of the 2009 John A. Seeley Friend of Evaluation Award from the Michigan Association for Evaluation (MAE).

The annual award recognizes individuals who are leading the effort to make evaluation an integral part of planning, developing and improving programs.

“We are committed to collecting and analyzing data and outcomes in all our programs so that we can serve our consumers and community in the best ways possible,” said Van Camp. “Evaluation is now an ingrained in the culture at Southwest Solutions.”

Van Camp created the Office of Evaluation, Research and Quality at Southwest Solutions. This department not only manages the quality initiatives of the organization, but also conducts internal program evaluations and contracts with other agencies to provide evaluation services. Under Van Camp’s leadership, Southwest Solutions has participated in national program quality studies and multi-site evaluation initiatives. As a result, Southwest has made important contributions to the field of program evaluation through presentations and publications.

“Because of John’s creation, support and promotion of an environment that fosters an evaluation mindset, Southwest is a leader in this area,” said Brian Dates, director of education and research at Southwest Solutions. “Staff members now not only ask, ‘how are we going to evaluate that?” – they also actively participate in designing approaches to evaluations.”

The John A. Seeley Friend of Evaluation Award will be presented to Van camp at the 14th Annual MAE conference in Lansing on May 8.

_________________________________________________________________________

Southwest Solutions (http://www.swsol.org) is the holding company of Southwest Counseling Solutions and Southwest Housing Solutions. The family of corporations offers a wide range of services to create a stronger and healthier southwest Detroit community, including mental health and early childhood services, affordable housing, home ownership counseling, employment opportunities and innovative economic development projects.

# # #