At Best Starts we know that collaboration with community is good practice and supports quality evaluation.
That’s why we’ve invested in a unique Community-Led Data strategy, so organizations lead the process of gathering, analyzing and sharing data about their own communities.
Best Starts has been collaborating with three community-based organizations on the strategy since 2023.The data community partners gather through this approach strengthens community-led efforts, provides insight into what pregnant people, families and caregivers with young children are experiencing, and is an important complement to more traditional data sources.
In 2025, community partners built upon their findings through ongoing engagement with communities around topics like emotional health and wellness, how cultural values inform community well-being and parenting, accessibility of services, and community safety & inclusivity. Partners shared findings with their communities through community events and presented findings to local officials.
Across the communities our partners spoke with, the findings highlight how communities incorporate cultural practices to support well-being, intergenerational perspectives about child care and parenting, community strengths and needs around mental health services, and a strong need for more environments that support belonging and community safety.
To learn more, read more about each partner’s findings here:
- Indian American Community Services report
- Community Café Collaborative Report
- United Communities of Laos report
Questions? Contact Sunny Giron (Sunny@thecommunitycafe.org) for questions about Community Café Collaborative findings, Kavita Ramakrishnan (kavithak@iaww.org) or Sucheta Pardikar (suchetap@iaww.org) for questions about Indian American Community Services findings, and Kayla Somvilay (Kayla@lcsc-wa.org) or Tracie Friedman (friedmantracie@gmail.com) for questions about United Communities of Laos findings.
