2019-present. The “BlueSky Initiative” is a social justice initiative created by Blue Shield of California in partnership with government and nonprofit organizations, with the goal of providing resources and supports for youth, families, educators, and caregivers to promote emotional well-being for youth. Blue Shield of California contracted with our SHS Research Team to provide comprehensive evaluation services for the BlueSky Initiative including tracking progress on Blue Shield Board-approved social justice goals and other goals, developing initiative and partner-specific logic models, evaluation tools and frameworks and tracking overall impact through quarterly and annual evaluation reports.
Individual programs that our team is evaluating include Wellness Together school-based mental health services, California Department of Education's Office of School-Based Health and Youth Mental Health First Aid Trainings, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) on Campus High School Clubs, Mental Health California Brother Be Well, and IndieFlix: Angst Building Resilience Program. Evaluation methods include training surveys, student and parent surveys, student and staff interviews, and analysis of pre-post counseling surveys. The findings describe the impact on access to culturally diverse and responsive mental health supports, increased ability of young Californians to engage in help-seeking behaviors, and increased ability of adults to recognize the signs and symptoms of youth who need support.
