Covian Consulting Earns Contract to Evaluate Osceola School Grants

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Covian Consulting, which helps institutions, community-based organizations and small businesses create and manage research, program evaluation, communication strategies, and staff development programs, recently earned a contract from the Osceola County School Board to provide Grant Program Evaluation Services. Maritza Concha, Ph.D., a principal at Covian Consulting, said grants from government agencies and private sources often require outside evaluation services when such evaluation requires special expertise or is too demanding for current fulltime staff to accomplish effectively. Dr. Concha said her contract can include work in staff development and training in the requirements of the approved grant applications, program review to determine the need for improvement or to identify what assistance may be needed. Dr. Concha said Covian’s scope of services could include behavioral intervention programs, programs for exceptional students and parent education programs as well as a host of student-related programs. “We may be involved with student safety, substance abuse and violence prevention programs, dropout prevention, after school programs, special initiatives to improve academic achievement and early childhood initiatives,” Dr. Concha said. Other programs can include emergency response and crisis management, language acquisition and dual language programs, counseling, adult education and career and technical education. “Grant programs today stress accountability and require detailed, well-organized efforts to monitor their effectiveness,” Dr. Concha explained. Covian Consulting is a client company of the University of Central Florida’s Business Incubation Program at the Central Florida Research Park in East Orange County.