Georgia KIDS COUNT Advocacy Evaluation Pilot Project

1. Georgia KIDS COUNT Advocacy Evaluation Pilot Project

2. Who We Are • Family Connection Partnership (FCP) is a state intermediary working with the 159 Georgia county collaboratives and has been the KIDS COUNT grantee since 2001. • Collaboratives are focused on improving results for children and families. • 50 indicators of child, family and community well-being are tracked by FCP and local communities.

3. Who We Are • FCP has a team approach: • KIDS COUNT work is joint effort of Public Policy Team and Evaluation Team. • KIDS COUNT team has expertise in epidemiology, data analysis, evaluation, marketing, communications, editing, public policy, and advocacy.

4. Organizational Culture • Team work • Data oriented • Community focused • Evaluation

5. Results Orientation • Data driven decision making • Indicators • Evaluation plans • Evaluation reports • Benchmark reports • KIDS COUNT • Theory of Change for Community Decision-making developed in 2001

6. Community Setting FAMILY CONNECTION COLLABORATIVE Structure Function SystemsChanges Decision Making Finance Strategy Mix Activities / Programs Indirect Direct Results for Children, Families and Communities Community Setting

7. Advocacy Evaluation Process • Brought the two teams together --- beyond the KIDS COUNT team • Reviewed organizational goals and strategies • Reviewed work in evaluation thus far • Gaps/strengths/opportunities • Sticky wall with everything up….

8. Advocacy Evaluation Process • Whoa….had to scale back. • But…..lightbulbs went off. • Team committed to another day of brainstorming to develop an Advocacy Theory of Change.

9. Advocacy Evaluation Process • Realized it was critical to connect the teams and keep everyone on board. • Refined outcomes map: Focus on advocacy but keep the bottomline in mind…..improving results for children and families. • Focused on organizational capacity and strengthened alliances.

10. Compile, manage, disseminate and promote the KIDS COUNT data and it’s use by collaboratives, state partners, and media. Connect the changing conditions of children, families, and communities with the impact of public policy. Counties have access to/are able to effectively use data to inform strategies/discussions. Counties are better able to implement effective strategies. County strategies can bring about positive change for children and families. Counties can become stronger partners.

11. Children/families in each county are more likely to show gains in results areas: *Increased chance of healthy start *Increased strong families *Increased school readiness *Improved family economic *Increased school success self-sufficiency ULTIMATE IMPACT: Georgia’s children/families show improvement in or maintain strong outcomes.

12. Next Steps • Outcomes and measurement • Do more ‘buckets’ • Flesh out ‘so that’ chains to illustrate connections between KIDS COUNT short term outcomes and longer term outcomes • Review/revise Theory of Change outcome map for FCP (the ‘whole enchilada’) • Use process to inform strategic planning

13. What We Learned • Important opportunity to do work we may not have done otherwise. • Expanding our thinking…thinking in different directions. • Educational for cross-team members. A learning opportunity. • Helped us articulate the usefulness of broader purposes of evaluation. • Provides significant input into our strategic planning process.

14. Success Factors • Commitment to evaluation • Willingness to broaden our scope and effort • Technical assistance to help us think outside our normal organizational box

15. For more information contact: Julie Sharpe or Taifa Butler jksharpe@friendlycity.net or taifa@gafcp.org www.gafcp.org