Need help writing your Final Evaluation Reports? Not sure how to get started? Don't worry! TCEC has a wealth of resources available for report writing. 

Reporting season is in full swing, and TCEC has already held two sessions on this topic. This newsletter details the answers to some questions that came up at those sessions.

After a long absence, TCEC is excited to return to providing in-person regional trainings in 2025!

They're a chance for folks working in California tobacco prevention to come together in person for a daylong deep dive into an area of evaluation that impacts your work. (And don't worry, we provide plenty of food!)

The last time the TCEC team was able to hit the road and bring our evaluation expertise to your community was 2019— what feels like an eternity ago.

As your Ghost of Evaluation Future, I’ll give you a glimpse into what’s in store for 2025.

Have you heard the phrase, “An organization is only as good as its people?”

It’s true that the passionate and dedicated agency staff of California’s tobacco prevention projects are what drive the success of these programs. However, when these team members move on to new projects, jobs, or life paths, what happens to the program’s progress?

Many project directors and new agency staff can tell you—it’s difficult to continually start from square one! Staff turnover is a common challenge for both local lead agencies and competitive grantees working in tobacco prevention. 

Here at TCEC, we often get questions about writing up results in reports. And most of these questions center around that pesky word: Requirements.

What am I required to do?

What are we required to include?

And of course this makes sense, as we all have deliverables we are bound to submit. (For more guidance on reporting requirements, see TCEC's page on Reporting Results.)

Daylight saving time is coming to a close here in California. When we were younger, my brother would call POP-CORN, which was a phone service that you could call and hear the correct time. Did you ever do that? He would call POP-CORN right before the time change, and the automated message would answer, “At the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be…1:59 and 50 seconds.” Then 10 seconds later the chime would say, “Pacific Standard Time will be 1:00 exactly.”  

The 2024 Olympics may be starting in a few weeks, but California’s Local Lead Agencies (LLAs) have been racing against the clock to complete their ECTC Data Collection in time. We are excited to declare that LLAs medaled in all four events— stores, parks, sidewalks, and MUH!