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Let us help you use your Data for Change Learn More What can ASR do for you? Children experiencing the joy of learning at a FIRST 5 Santa Clara County-supported family resource center. Photo taken by Daniel Tran, 2017 About OUR PURPOSE IS TO IMPROVE LIVES In 1980, four researchers from UC Santa Cruz came together with a mission: Gather data. Use data. Spark change. For over 40 years, Applied Survey Research (ASR) has been helping people build better communities. As a growing non-profit social research consulting firm, our offices in Watsonville, San Jose, and Sacramento, California help many cities, counties, foundations, coalitions and organizations measure and advance the quality of life for the people they serve. We offer award-winning research services such as community needs assessments, homeless assessments, strategic planning, program design, program evaluation, and online data dashboarding. We are best known for our ability to help partners like you gather key data on the issues affecting your population, and to help you use this information to create strategic, lasting, and impactful solutions. Our diverse team of researchers enjoys the privilege of learning about your efforts, and helping guide your team each step of the way until you have the answers you need. Our job is to help you create a path toward your desired results, measure your impact and tell your story. Let's work together to spark lasting change. Susan Brutschy President & Founder In 1980, four researchers from UC Santa Cruz came together with a mission: Gather data. Use data. Spark change. For over 40 years, Applied Survey Research (ASR) has been helping people build better communities. As a growing non-profit social research consulting firm, our offices in Watsonville, San Jose, and Sacramento, California help many cities, counties, foundations, coalitions and organizations measure and advance the quality of life for the people they serve. We offer award-winning research services such as community needs assessments, homeless assessments, strategic planning, program design, program evaluation, and online data dashboarding. We are best known for our ability to help partners like you gather key data on the issues affecting your population, and to help you use this information to create strategic, lasting, and impactful solutions. Our diverse team of researchers enjoys the privilege of learning about your efforts, and helping guide your team each step of the way until you have the answers you need. Our job is to help you create a path toward your desired results, measure your impact and tell your story. Let's work together to spark lasting change. PASSIONATE TEAM 97% of partners agreed that ASR demonstrated compassion and “heart” for the issues they seek to address in their community Source: ASR 2018 Partner Survey Services WHAT WE DO We help our partners collect data, understand what’s working and what’s not, and identify what actions can be taken to create meaningful and lasting change. View Partner List PROJECTS BY TOPIC ACEs, Mental Health, Substance Use and Wellbeing Child Safety Community Health Needs Assessments COVID Impact Fair Market Rent Survey (FMR) Family Strengthening and Home Visiting First 5 Children and Families Commissions Homelessness Assessments Public Safety Racial Equity School Readiness Youth Development PROJECTS BY METHODOLOGY App and Text-based Data Collection Community Assessments Data Visualizations and Infographics Evaluation Planning Executive Summaries Focus Groups & Listening Sessions Grantmaking Support Group Facilitation / Community Planning Sessions Needs Assessments Online Data Dashboards (Tableau) Participatory Research and Evaluation Process and Outcome Evaluations Results-based Accountability (RBA) Strategic Planning Surveys Upstream Prevention Portal (coming soon) Choose a category from the lists below for samples of our work. Testimonials TESTIMONIALS "The investment made in selecting ASR as our evaluator has strengthened our systems, accountability, partnerships as well as funding by a minimum of three folds. For small counties who think they cannot afford to have ASR as their evaluator, learn from us — invest in this amazing partnership so that you can grow and diversify your resources." Karen Pautz Executive Director, First 5 Siskiyou Contact CONTACT US Let’s Work Together CENTRAL COAST 55 Penny Lane, Suite 101 | P.O. Box 1927 Watsonville, CA 95077 Phone: 831.728.1356 | Fax: 831.728.3374 BAY AREA Phone: 408.247.8319 | Fax: 408.260.7749 SACRAMENTO 915 Highland Pointe, Suite 250 Rocklin, CA 95678 Phone: 408.483.8471 services@appliedsurveyresearch.org 877-728-4545 First Name Last Name Email Leave us a message... I am seeking support for: Kindergarten/School Readiness Community Assessment Homeless Point In Time Count Needs Assessment Strategic Plan Program Evaluation Other (see notes above) Submit Contact Form Thanks for submitting! Join our mailing list! Subscribe Thanks for subscribing!

View Full Report Executive Summary Community Assessments By taking a broad scan of a community’s quality of life, ASR’s community assessments set the foundation for collaborators to make collective impact. ASR’s Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project was the longest running community assessment project in the country (1995-2020). Other assessments have focused on a variety of populations, such as youth, children witnessing domestic violence, farmworkers, veterans, older adults, and the Black/African Ancestry community. Highlight Project: Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project View Full Report Executive Summary < Back Additional work samples Stanislaus Youth & Family Spotlight Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley Report Card View Report Card Exec Summary View Full Report Exec Summary Stanislaus County CAP View Full Report Exec Summary Children & Youth Well-being Santa Cruz County Spotlight View Report

Laura Johnsen Research and Administrative Assistant Susan Brutschy co-founded Applied Survey Research in 1981 with Sociology Professor Dane Archer of the University of California, Santa Cruz. She has been President of ASR since 1989, leading hundreds of evaluations, assessments, and strategic planning processes in community quality of life, early childhood development, domestic violence, child abuse and maltreatment, early literacy, K-12 education, and homelessness. Ms. Brutschy has expanded ASR's work to national and international prominence. In 2006, ASR won the prestigious Community Service Award from the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology (AACS). They noted that ASR won the honor "for its outstanding work in applying its data collection, analysis, reporting, and management skills to addressing homelessness and other social problems." In 2007, ASR and the United Way of Santa Cruz County won a national award from the Brookings Institution for having the best indicator project in the nation, the Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project (CAP) . Over the last decade, Ms. Brutschy has pioneered an outcomes framework for ASR's work in community assessments, evaluations, and strategic planning processes. This framework, known as Results Based Accountability (RBA), was created by Mark Friedman of the Fiscal Policies Institute. The framework’s goal is to begin with the outcomes that a community would like to achieve. Once a community agrees on those outcomes, Ms. Brutschy and ASR staff use RBA to develop the best methods to achieve those ends. She has successfully led many projects using RBA, including the previously mentioned Santa Cruz County CAP, which functions as a community report card with over 135 indicators; First 5 Santa Cruz County to benefit children ages 0-5 in low income communities of color; and Kindergarten Readiness Assessments in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties. Ms. Brutschy believes that data should not sit in binders collecting dust, but rather that it should become a catalyst for community change. She has helped many communities in California, Arizona, and Alaska to achieve improvements in health, domestic violence, child abuse and maltreatment, early childhood literacy, drug and alcohol abuse, and school safety. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with highest honors in Sociology, and received awards for her research in designing and implementing quantitative assessments of community opinion for the Social Research Unit. In addition to her work at ASR, Ms. Brutschy enjoys reading about the history of ancient Egypt, international travel, and camping with her husband and four adult children. < Back LauraJ@appliedsurveyresearch.org

Laura Connery Director of Operations and Impact Ms. Connery came to ASR in 2007 and has worked on evaluations and assessments in the areas of early childhood education, youth development, homelessness, farmworker needs, community needs assessments, community health assessments, and recreation and housing assessments. As a community researcher with a specialty in community-based participatory research, she has led numerous primary data collection efforts in the states of California, Arizona, and Alaska. Ms. Connery has engaged and worked with vulnerable populations as part of efforts to obtain quantitative and qualitative data to better the quality of life of community members. Some of her projects include needs and assets reports for children ages 0-5 in 9 different regions in Arizona; a Human Services, Recreation, and Housing needs assessment to evaluate the recreation needs of the City of Pasadena’s residents; and Homeless Census and Surveys to provide an accurate number of homeless individuals and qualitative data about their need for services in over 9 different counties in California. She is currently serving our partners and staff in the role of Director of Operations and Impact, in addition to serving on the Steering Committee for Project Homeless Connect which provides services, food, and clothing for our community’s underserved populations. Ms. Connery’s passion is social justice and equity and her expertise is implementing innovative methods of collecting data to better tell these stories. In addition to her love of her nieces and nephews, she also enjoys traveling, exploring the outdoors, enjoying live music, and spending time with her two dogs. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. < Back Laura@appliedsurveyresearch.org

View Full Report Executive Summary Process & Outcome Evaluations Process-oriented evaluations look at how well an effort is being implemented, usually for the formative purposes of making improvements. Outcome-oriented evaluations look at the summative impact of an effort on participants. Most of ASR’s evaluations include both process and outcome components so we can help you get a holistic view of how your efforts are helping create positive change. Highlight Project: First 5 Sacramento Evaluation Report < Back View Full Report Additional work samples F5 Santa Clara F5 Tehama View Full Report Exec Summary View Full Report Exec Summary F5 Siskiyou View Full Report Exec Summary CAFES Program, Santa Cruz County Probation Department View Report

Sofia Stepanyan, PhD Senior Research Analyst Dr. Stepanyan is a developmental and research psychologist with expertise in behavioral research and data analysis. She has over 10 years of experience designing and implementing research projects, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She also has extensive experience with community-based evaluations, surveys, needs assessments, and strategic planning efforts. Dr. Stepanyan also has over 10 years of experience in higher education. Prior to joining ASR, she was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Gannon University, where her research focused on understanding the development of youth behavioral, emotional, and psychosocial problems. Her work has been published in leading journals such as Journal of Adolescence, The Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children. Dr. Stepanyan received a BA degree in Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and MA and Ph.D degrees in Developmental Psychology from the University of California, Riverside. < Back Sofia@appliedsurveyresearch.org

View Full Report Executive Summary Needs Assessments By taking a broad scan of a community’s quality of life, ASR’s needs assessments set the foundation for collaborators to make collective impact. ASR’s needs assessments have focused on a variety of populations, such as youth, children witnessing domestic violence, farmworkers, veterans, older adults, and the Black/African American community. Highlight Project: Santa Cruz County Black Health Matters Spotllght < Back View Report Additional work samples Santa Clara County Senior Needs Assessment View Report San Mateo County Veteran Needs Assessment View Report

Family Strengthening & Home Visiting ASR has helped plan and/or evaluate many programs that aim to strengthen protective factors and improve family outcomes. These include home visiting needs assessments in Santa Clara, Yuba-Sutter, Tehama and Siskiyou counties, and evaluations in Solano, Sacramento and Mendocino counties. Project Highlight: Yuba and Sutter Counties Home Visiting Environmental Scan View Full Report Executive Summary < Back Additional work samples Santa Clara County Home Visiting Assessment Birth & Beyond Family Resource Center Evaluation Reduction of African American Child Deaths View Full Report Exec Summary View Full Report Exec Summary View Full Report Exec Summary

Jennifer Anderson-Ochoa, MIA Senior Project Director Jennifer Anderson-Ochoa has been working with ASR since January 2016. Jennifer brings a wealth of practical ‘data to action’ experience and has worked on evaluations and assessments in the areas of racial equity, restorative justice, community health, adult and youth homelessness, COVID-19, and child health. Some of her recent projects include the Santa Cruz County Black Health Matters Initiative Spotlight , Kaiser Community Health Needs Assessment, the City of Watsonville Ad Hoc Committee on Policing and Social Equity Report , and Stanislaus County Community Assessments, 2019 Family and Children Edition and 2021 COVID-19 Edition . Jennifer received her Master’s degree in International Administration, with a concentration in Cross Cultural Communication and Training, from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT. She received her BA in Sociology from George Washington University. Prior to working at ASR, Jennifer directed two family resource centers in Santa Cruz County, where core programs focused on strengthening the safety net, and included early childhood education/parenting support, medical home education, nutrition education, restorative justice with youth on probation, ESL and Spanish literacy classes, rapid re-housing and homelessness prevention, and public assistance enrollment support. Jennifer also served on the steering committee of the Youth Violence Prevention Task Force. Prior to that, Jennifer worked for 23 years in HIV/AIDS prevention, both in the United States and while living in Sub-Saharan Africa. In part, she worked to grow a private foundation focused on making grants to community groups in Africa that support children affected by HIV. She managed a portfolio of more than 100 grantees in six African countries and helped to develop a groundbreaking Monitoring and Evaluation and Technical Assistance program. Jennifer’s focus has always been on social justice, racial equity and making sure the voices of the most vulnerable are heard by change-makers. < Back Jennifer@appliedsurveyresearch.org

Jim Wright, PhD Project Manager Jim joined ASR in 2024 as a Senior Research Analyst. He earned his Ph.D. in speech-language pathology with a specialization in educational data science from the University of Oregon. His research has primarily focused on the evaluation of treatments to support individuals experiencing cognitive challenges following acquired brain injury. He has also participated in research and program evaluation projects to support initiatives related to teacher recruitment and retention, digital learning, literacy intervention and instruction, school accountability systems, and community wellbeing. Jim specializes in research methodology, implementation science, statistical analysis, and data collection, management, and visualization. He additionally has worked clinically as a speech-language pathologist in medical and educational settings supporting individuals with communication disorders and maintains his Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. In his free time, Jim enjoys swimming, hiking, and spending time with his wife and two children. < Back Jim@appliedsurveyresearch.org

Chelsie Hess, Ph.D. Senior Research Analyst Dr. Chelsie Hess joined ASR in 2022. Chelsie has a M.A. in School Counseling and previously served as a licensed school counselor for the State of Colorado. She has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, doctoral minor in Applied Statistics and Research Methods and doctoral specialty in Child Development from the University of Northern Colorado. Prior to joining ASR, Chelsie worked in higher education for fifteen years. Her program evaluation work has focused on teacher program effectiveness and community programs serving children and families. During her time with the College of Education at the University of Northern Colorado, she assisted in evaluation of multiple teacher preparation and licensed personnel programs to ensure alignment with national, state, and college accreditation standards. In her role as a tenured-faculty and Associate Professor of Psychology at Colorado Mesa University, she taught Research and Child Development courses while serving as Chair of the Institutional Review Board and on multiple executive boards for the community. Her training has been in assessment and measurement, focus groups, longitudinal restricted datasets, multiple regression, sampling procedures, survey design and validation, qualitative methodology, and program evaluation. She enjoys a balance of teaching, research, and partnerships with local schools and community agencies to better bridge the gap between practice and research. She has a commitment to data integrity, multi-displinary and applied research, providing meaningful and actionable feedback to impact community and child outcomes. In her free time, Dr. Hess enjoys spending time in the mountains of Colorado with her two children--- skiing, hiking, rafting, and camping. She also loves cooking, oil painting, movies, and collecting folk rock vinyl records. < Back Chelsie@appliedsurveyresearch.org

Kim Gillette, MPH Senior Project Manager Kim Gillette joined ASR in June 2021. She has over 20 years of experience managing nonprofit and government programs, including developing and evaluating programs, fundraising, and building collaborations to improve communities. Some of her recent ASR projects include the Kaiser Permanente East Bay Community Health Needs Assessment, San Mateo County Juvenile Probation annual programmatic evaluations, and the First 5 Solano report on Foundation Giving in Solano County and the Bay Area. In her last role, as a consultant at BuildingBlox Consulting, Kim provided training to nonprofit executives and board members to effectively lead their organizations, coached leaders and provided them with tools and expertise to solve challenges, and conducted needs and feasibility assessments to help nonprofit organizations strategically plan for the future. Prior to that, she was the Director of the Daly City Youth Health Center for ten years. In this role she managed the team members and operations of a comprehensive health center for low-income youth, providing them with primary health care, behavioral health services, health education and vocation programs. She successfully led the planning and fundraising to enable the Health Center to move into a new, state-of-the-art, teen-friendly facility. Kim received her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan in Health Behavior Health Education and Interdepartmental Concentration in Reproductive and Women’s health and her Bachelor’s in Psychology from UC Berkeley. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, crafting, and snuggling in the hammock with her pup and a good book. < Back Gillette@appliedsurveyresearch.org