Kelley Massengale, a UNCG PHE doctoral student, has been actively involved with the Durham-based Diaper Bank of North Carolina since January of 2014, where she volunteers weekly. The diaper bank works to provide low-income families in Durham and Orange counties with a supplemental supply of diapers by working with partner organizations in the community who distribute diapers to the families they serve. The diaper bank receives diapers donated from community members through diaper drives and drop-off locations around town. Unfortunately, there has been little research and evaluation of diaper banks, including the Diaper Bank of North Carolina, and their work. When Kelley learned of a community-based research grant initiative, she thought it would be a good fit.
Kelley completed the grant & IRB applications and was awarded a grant from the UNCG Office of Leadership and Service-Learning, the UNCG Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creativity Office, and the UNCG Graduate School for the project “Formative Evaluation of a Community-Based Diaper Bank: Need for Benefits of Providing Low-Income Families with Diapers.” In this project, Kelley is collecting quantitative and qualitative data in 3 phases. Phase 1 consists of interviewing key informants with community-based organizations that distributes diapers. In Phase 2 she is surveying both community-based organization staff and families who received diapers. Phase 3 consists of conducting individual interviews with community members who have received the diapers. The goal of this project is to provide critical information to the diaper bank so that they can grow and improve. The evidence from this study will support all the wonderful things they are doing; allow them to continue getting funded and hopefully sustain the diaper bank in the long run.
Dr. Jennifer Toller Erausquin is the Faculty Mentor for the project and UNCG PHE undergraduate student Stephanie Paxton is a Research Assistant on the team. From the data they have analyzed to date, the research team is finding a wide range of positive outcomes to both the community partners and to the families who have received diapers. The most rewarding part of this project is knowing that the outcome of the evaluation will provide more clean diapers for children in the community by providing the diaper bank the information they need to receive more grant funding in the future. With the help of her research team, Kelley is providing documentation of the outcomes experienced by families who have received diapers from the Diaper Bank of NC and also a process of evaluation of how diapers are distributed.