May 28, 2014

NEW COLLABORATIVE LAUNCHED TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES FOR VULNERABLE CHILDREN, FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES

Washington, D.C. – Today, nine national and four local organizations announced the creation of the National Results and Equity Collaborative, designed to enable national and local philanthropy, technical assistance providers, public and private civic and service organizations, government and others to work together to help more vulnerable young people succeed from birth throughout adulthood.

“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.

The collaborative is creating a national network to align results-based technical assistance, effective strategies and solutions across multiple national and local initiatives. The hope is that with consistency and use of results-based methodologies at all levels, communities, states and the nation can make faster and enduring 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 leaders and organizations throughout the country to test and use this approach and to share what they are learning.

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 Annie E. Casey Foundation
  • The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
  • Center for Family Services
  • Center for the Study of Social Policy
  • Coalition for Community Schools at the Institute for Educational Leadership
  • Literacy Funders Network
  • Literacy Powerline’s Network of Coalitions
  • Promise Neighborhoods Institute at PolicyLink
  • Results Leadership Group
  • United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey in Camden County
  • United Way of Salt Lake
  • United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County
  • United Way Worldwide