New Collaborative Launched to Improve Outcomes for Vulnerable Children, Families and Communities

Today, 11 nation­al and local orga­ni­za­tions announced the cre­ation of the Nation­al Results and Equi­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tive to help more vul­ner­a­ble young peo­ple suc­ceed from birth through­out adulthood.

The col­lab­o­ra­tive cre­ates a nation­al net­work to align results-based tech­ni­cal assis­tance, effec­tive strate­gies and solu­tions across mul­ti­ple nation­al and local ini­tia­tives. The hope is that by pro­mot­ing con­sis­ten­cy and the use of results-based method­olo­gies at the fed­er­al, state and local lev­els, com­mu­ni­ties, states and the nation can make faster and last­ing progress in help­ing more low-income and minor­i­ty chil­dren and youth suc­ceed in school and life.

The goal of the col­lab­o­ra­tive is to pro­mote accel­er­at­ed pos­i­tive results for the most vul­ner­a­ble chil­dren and youth by align­ing sev­er­al impor­tant dimen­sions of a results-based approach, including:

• A frame­work that can serve as a com­mon out­line to which com­mu­ni­ties and ini­tia­tives can add their unique addi­tion­al indi­ca­tors and/​or language
• A shared com­mit­ment to build­ing com­mu­ni­ty capac­i­ty and gen­er­at­ing evi­dence about how com­mu­ni­ty capac­i­ties con­tribute to results
• A will­ing­ness to share tools and mate­ri­als that sup­port strat­e­gy development

“We are sup­port­ing the Nation­al Results and Equi­ty Col­lab­o­ra­tive because we see an oppor­tu­ni­ty for com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to take advan­tage of the avail­able results-based lead­er­ship resources and tools that can accel­er­ate mea­sure­able progress for kids, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties,” said Don­na Stark, vice pres­i­dent of tal­ent and lead­er­ship devel­op­ment at the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion. The foun­da­tion has also been a long-time sup­port­er of the results-based approach for place-based work.

As aligned def­i­n­i­tions and mea­sures are devel­oped and test­ed, the col­lab­o­ra­tive will share them wide­ly and func­tion as a peer net­work, invit­ing expand­ing cir­cles of lead­ers and orga­ni­za­tions to test and use this approach and share what they are learning. 

“From a nation­al per­spec­tive, it means tech­ni­cal assis­tance providers will be using con­sis­tent tools and approach­es that focus on the con­di­tions of well-being we want for chil­dren and fam­i­lies we serve,” not­ed Michael McAfee, senior direc­tor of the Promise Neigh­bor­hoods Insti­tute at Pol­i­cyLink. 

“From a local per­spec­tive, it means I can have a com­mon lan­guage across dif­fer­ent agen­cies and ini­tia­tives, like Unit­ed Way, Promise Neigh­bor­hoods, Com­mu­ni­ty Schools and oth­ers,” added Mer­ilee Ruto­lo, chief oper­at­ing offi­cer at the Cen­ter for Fam­i­ly Ser­vices in Cam­den, New Jersey.

Each of the found­ing nation­al and local part­ners work on a range of pro­grams and ini­tia­tives that raise up a results-based process and the need for equi­ty. They include: 

• The Cam­paign for Grade-Lev­el Reading
• Cen­ter for Fam­i­ly Services
• Cen­ter for the Study of Social Policy
• Coali­tion for Com­mu­ni­ty Schools
• Lit­er­a­cy Fun­ders Network
• Pow­er­line Net­work of Lit­er­a­cy Coalitions
• Promise Neigh­bor­hoods Insti­tute at PolicyLink
• Promise Part­ner­ships
• Results Lead­er­ship Group
• Unit­ed Way of San Anto­nio and Bexar County
• Unit­ed Way Worldwide