We are always so inspired by our partners and their work to support families, children and young people. We often more fully understand the impact of these services and supports because of data and evaluation. We realized Best Starts needs better tools to understand the impacts of Best Starts supported programs. These tools also need to be responsive to the unique needs of King County communities. So our earlier RFP included two distinct bodies of work to support overarching Best Starts prenatal-to-five data and evaluation activities for Best Starts programs serving children and families across the county.
We are glad to announce our awardees for these data and evaluation projects!
| Organization | Project |
| The Capacity Collective | Prenatal to Five Culturally Relevant Measurement Tool |
| Cardea Services | Early Support for Infants and Toddlers Child Welfare Evaluation Landscape Analysis |
Prenatal to five culturally relevant measurement tool
Current tools to measure changes in family protective factors have not typically included diverse communities of color or communities that speak a language other than English in their development. Therefore, the current scientific tools to measure protective factors may miss important protective factors or have low cultural relevance. In order to measure the impacts of Best Start’s culturally responsive programming across the Prenatal-to-Five spectrum, culturally relevant tools are essential.
What is a protective factor? Protective factors are conditions or attributes that lower or eliminate risk in families and communities, and increase the health and well-being of children and families. For example, protective factors help parents to find resources, supports, or coping strategies that allow them to parent effectively, even under stress.
The activities of this project therefore begin the process of developing new, culturally relevant, foundational tools that Best Starts can use in multiple Prenatal-to-Five programs. The Capacity Collective will conduct scientific review of existing tools and adapt/develop a culturally relevant, multilingual tool for measuring outcomes related to protective factors for community designed promotion, prevention, and early intervention programs for families with children under 5.
This is an opportunity to support Best Starts community-designed programs in demonstrating their effectiveness and building evidence for new program models, particularly communities that have not previously been represented in the scientific development of existing protective factors tools. The project includes some background research, stakeholder feedback, and early validity testing.
Prenatal to five early support for infants and toddlers child welfare evaluation
Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) programs support early childhood development. However, there is a current scientific gap in understanding outcomes of current models for ESIT services to children in out-of-home care and/or involved in the state child welfare system. This project works to fill this information gap by conducting a landscape analysis for King County. This project will provide an improved understanding of who, how, and which children are being served by ESIT within the child welfare system. It will also provide an understanding of what our King County system could do at each phase to better support and engage parents and families.
This project involves conducting a landscape analysis assessing outcomes of current models for providing Early Support for Infants and Toddlers (ESIT) services to children in out-of-home care and/or involved in the state child welfare system. This project will provide an improved understanding of who, how, and which children are being served by ESIT within the child welfare system. It will also provide an understanding of what our King County system could do at each phase to better support and engage parents and families.
Congrats Capacity Collective and Cardea Services! We look forward to working with you!