Client Spotlight: Scaling Impact Through Program Evaluation

Robin LaBarbera • August 26, 2024

Non-profit leaders: What's the best way to build capacity and accelerate your program's impact?

You can drive greater impact with data.

Work with a program evaluator who has a history of publishing research in academic journals to ensure that more people see your accomplishments.

We helped a client expand their program into 53 new locations because we published evaluation data in over 25 blogs and three academic journals.

Together, we helped drive meaningful change for our client, and we can do the same for you.

Prison Education Can Change Lives

The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports high rates of recidivism among incarcerated persons who are released into the community. Within three years of their release, two-thirds (67.8%) are rearrested, and within five years, more than three-fourths (76.6%) are rearrested. However, incarcerated individuals who participate in prison education programs are 43% less likely to re-offend following their release.

Educational programs in prison support an individual’s successful reentry into society and strengthen public safety. According to federal data, prison education program participants were 43% less likely to return to criminal behavior once released. Participation in education programs while incarcerated increases and improves employment opportunities and saves taxpayer dollars.

Program Evaluation Findings

We partnered with a client who runs a faith-based higher education in prison (HEP) program across America to evaluate their program’s effectiveness. Results of our evaluation suggested that more than purely an academic program, this faith-based higher education equips men and women for leadership and services, creates psychological well-being, promotes healthy thinking patterns, brings self-awareness and self-respect to its participants, enables positive interpersonal relationships inside and outside prison walls, and equips participants with problem-solving skills, impulse control, and the ability to manage negative emotions.

We Disseminated the Evaluation Findings to a Wide Audience

We published our findings in over 25 blogs and three peer-reviewed professional research journals. For example, we shared the pilot evaluation with the academic community, highlighting the transformative effects of participating in a prison-based educational program.

Then, we published the final data based on almost 300 interviews with currently and formerly incarcerated men and women in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, highlighting participants’ perception of program quality and their prosocial thinking, behavior, and relationships, all of which contribute to identity change and desistance from criminal behavior.

Our published research got noticed!

Amplifying Program Impact

Obtaining permission to offer a program in any state’s correctional system is no easy task. Potential programs must undergo a rigorous screening application and vetting process before it may be presented to participants. A lengthy application with appropriate documentation is required, and approval is not automatically guaranteed.

As part of their expansion program, our client applied to another state to offer their faith-based educational program in their prison system. Because our evaluation findings had been widely published, especially in peer-reviewed academic journals, the application process was streamlined.

The head of corrections in another state quickly approved the expansion of their program into all 52 prisons, largely because the research findings had been published in academic research journals.

Inspiring Change

We can help you get your data noticed like we did for our client in the faith-based higher education in prison (HEP) field.

We won’t stop at data analysis and short-term reporting needs.

We focus on driving change in the social sector through thought leadership, speaking engagements, and national and international professional publications.

Connect with an expert evaluator to turn your data into actionable insights and expand your reach.

Let’s grow your non-profit together.

Ready to learn about how program evaluation can maximize your organization’s community impact? From data collection to analysis to communicating findings to a wide audience, we develop insights that drive informed decisions. Get started by clicking here.

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Incarcerated men in white uniforms stand in a circle with arms around each other's shoulders, heads

The Brotherhood Nobody Expected

By Robin LaBarbera • June 1, 2026

Faith-based education does more than teach — it builds brotherhood. New research reveals how community drives transformation in prison.

Community, connection, and belonging — the markers of flourishing (credit: Shutterstock).

What Does Flourishing Look Like After Prison? House of Mercy Has Some Answers

By Robin LaBarbera • May 26, 2026

Can data reveal human flourishing after prison? Five rounds of reentry evaluation at House of Mercy say yes.

What Does Flourishing Look Like Behind Bars?

By Robin LaBarbera • April 16, 2026

When we think about prison education, we tend to ask one question: Does it reduce recidivism? It's a reasonable question, but it may be the wrong one. My recently published study in the Journal of Global Education and Research asked a different question: Does participating in a seminary-level theological education program actually change how people flourish while they're still incarcerated and after they come home? The answer, across 266 participants in six facilities and four states, was yes. Participants in The Urban Ministry Institute (TUMI) prison program showed higher scores on established well-being measures, healthier thinking patterns, stronger coping skills, and more positive relationships than comparison groups. And those gains didn't evaporate at the gate. Program graduates in reentry carried the markers of flourishing into post-release life. What flourishing actually looks like Flourishing isn't a soft concept. Drawing on Diener's Flourishing Scale, a validated instrument used in positive psychology research, the study measured constructs such as purpose, engagement, meaning, and positive relationships. These aren't warm feelings. They're measurable conditions that predict sustained behavior change. What the data showed was this: when incarcerated men and women are given access to rigorous academic study grounded in community and accountability, something shifts. Not just in what they know, but in who they are becoming. The research identified five mechanisms driving that transformation: deep educational engagement, authentic peer community, relational accountability, future-oriented purpose, and restorative action through mentorship. Each reinforces the others. Together, they create the conditions for the kind of change that lasts. Why this matters beyond the research Policymakers, funders, and program designers consistently reach for recidivism as their primary metric. But recidivism tells us something quite narrow — whether someone returned to prison within a given window. It tells us almost nothing about whether a person is living well, contributing to their community, or building a meaningful life. If we want justice systems that actually produce human flourishing, we need to measure what flourishing looks like. And we need to fund and design programs that create the conditions for it. Faith-based theological education in prison, when done with rigor and relational integrity, does that. The full peer-reviewed article, "Religious Higher Education in Prison in the United States: The Importance of Well-Being," is published in the Journal of Global Education and Research (Vol. 10, Issue 2, 2026). Read it here.

Transformation in Prison (credit: Shutterstock)

Transformation Behind Bars: Why Long-Term Prison Stories Matter

By Robin LaBarbera • February 1, 2026

We rarely discuss people serving life sentences who've genuinely transformed. Karen Brown's 40-year journey shows why we should.

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By Robin LaBarbera • September 5, 2025

What does dignity look like for our unhoused neighbors? Sometimes it is a shower, sometimes it is a mailbox, sometimes it is simply being seen.

Urban neighborhood, community chaplaincy, human flourishing (credit: Shutterstock).

When Flourishing Misses the Point

By Robin LaBarbera • July 9, 2025

Measuring flourishing is not simply about identifying domains or creating a reliable tool. It requires asking questions in a way that respects the dignity and lived experience of the people responding. That cannot be done from a distance. It requires proximity.