124 - Introducing the Carolina Collaborative for Early Childhood Innovation: Funding a Listening and Evaluation Process to Close the Gap Between Program Designers and Users from Beginning to End

Abstract Information: This session will share a case study for how community voice and feedback was used in the initial development and ongoing implementation of the Carolina Collaborative for Early Childhood Innovation (CC4ECI) process. CC4ECI is a funding model that seeks to fulfill unmet needs of children and families through innovative programming, iterative feedback loops, and learning communities seeking to close the gap between program designers and users. Co-designed by South Carolina First Steps and the North Carolina Partnership for Children, the model was initially developed through four months of intensive feedback gathering from our collective networks of community-based nonprofits that serve young children and families in our respective states and national experts. CC4ECI seeks to implement a process by which community-based nonprofits can test innovations in programming that either establishes a new program or adapts/modifies an existing program. In 2024, First Steps is implementing the first iteration of the process that includes the following components: (1) infuses family and community voice throughout the program design, implementation, and evaluation process; (2) adapts the IDEAS (Innovate, Develop, Evaluate, Adapt, and Scale) Impact Framework, developed by the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, for rapid cycle testing and evaluation; (3) uses a cohort model for implementation with state support; (4) funds a six-month start up phase for program planning with intensive synchronous and asynchronous work. The initial cohort of three First Steps community nonprofits were selected in December 2023, and their start up phases began in January 2024. As part of this process, each community nonprofits selected their project team, which includes: the Executive Director, an Evaluation Coach, 2-3 Community Members, a Program Expert, and their state Program Officer. The start up phase includes a series of collaborative learning workshops with a companion evaluation toolkit focused on infusing community voice, refining their innovation's theory of change, and planning for measurement of program implementation and impact. This session will be interactive and share our initial learnings from the start up phase, including an initial iteration of our evaluation toolkit and workshop sessions.