The Johnson & Johnson – Johns Hopkins Community Health Care Scholars Program  (J&J/JHU Scholars Program)  is part of a collaboration established in 1998 between the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program  and theJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) to help improve the sustainability of community health care organizations  (CHCOs) around the country.   The J&J/JHU Scholars Program provides evidence- based technical assistance to help increase the in-house capacity in monitoring and evaluation of CHCOs receiving funding support from J&J.   In an increasing competitive arena for limited funding, there is a heightened need for CHCOs to hone the skills necessary to demonstrate program effectiveness.  According to Dr. Rick Martinez, J&J Medical Director for Corporate Contributions, the partnership between the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johnson & Johnson was created to leverage an important academic-industry partnership.

The eleven-year partnership between J&J and Johns Hopkins has provided over 70 doctoral students from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Nursing with  the opportunity to translate their academic knowledge into practice, while offering the J&J grantees technical assistance in monitoring and evaluation over the two years of the J&J grant.  A request for applications is released in February to first and second year full-time students with final selection of Scholars announced by April of every year.  The Scholars start work with their projects during the fall of the first year of the grant, followed by four field visits and sustained follow-up via conference calls and e-mails throughout the life of the grant.

At the end of the two year technical assistance, the J&J Grantee staff is able to design and implement their own evaluation plan, including : setting goal, objectives, and indicators, creating a conceptual framework as well as a data base and conducting data analysis and presenting their program’s outcomes.