Collaborative Research: Leading with Hope to Leverage Philanthropic Investment
Effective research partnerships often combine practitioner expertise, participatory research inclusive of community voices, and philanthropic investment to generate useful data for constituents across multiple sectors. A 2024 report to the Wallace Foundation outlines recommendations from Child Trends, Inc., the organization they commissioned to determine how a variety of out-of-school time (OTS) programs measure their impact on school-age children. While the report yielded some definitive approaches to determining student outcomes following participation in extracurricular activities, key measurement challenges were evident, including:
Lack of available or tested measurement tools (e.g., validated constructs)
Specific outcomes that are difficult to measure (e.g., artistic performances)
Data collection challenges (e.g., inadequate systems, limited staff time)
Implications for Service Providers and Foundations
Measurement concerns limit organizational leaders' ability to glean and leverage actionable insights after investing in evaluation, a paradox health care practitioners have aptly termed a “research-practice gap.” Child Trends’ recommendations to program leaders, researchers, and funders (reference table below), highlight the need for evaluation partnerships that prioritize goals, codify inclusive measures, and build organizations’ capacity to apply actionable insights long-term.
Source: Child Care, Inc. report to the Wallace Foundation (2024)
Alla Breve Consulting’s signature L.A.S.E.R. (Lead - Assess - Strategize - Evaluate - Refine and Repeat) framework provides solutions for educators and other public-facing leaders who find themselves at the pivotal juncture where “there are more questions than answers…the more I find out, the less I know.” The consulting team leads clients through critical evaluation phases from goal setting to strategic plan refinement. Embedded within the L.A.S.E.R. framework’s Lead phase are four steps to begin turning data into direction:
Highly interactive meetings and workshops
Opportunities for a range of constituents to contribute to decision-making
Purposeful support in collecting and interpreting data
Evidence-based measures
To learn more about how to partner with Alla Breve to lead with HOPE and turn insights into impact, schedule a consultation.
References
Lantos, H., Redd., Z., Warren, J., Bradley, M, & Habteselasse, S. (2024). Measuring youth development: How out-of-school time programs collect and use data. Child Trends. DOI: 10.56417/3703u3452e
Westerlund, A. Nilsen, P, & Sundberg, L. (2019). Implementation of Implementation Science Knowledge: The Research-Practice Gap Paradox. Worldviews on Evidence‐based Nursing published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Sigma Theta Tau International The Honor Society of Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12403
There Are More Questions Than Answers, Johnny Nash, I Can Clearly Now. (1972) https://open.spotify.com/track/5nM8blXSt3gaZYdfL4UA32
