Measuring Community Change
Mary Emery: SDSU
Milan Wall: Heartland Center for
Leadership Development
Liz Weaver: Tamarack
Tom Kelly: Anne E. Casey Foundation
Purpose
• Several year effort with multiple stakeholders
looking at what we can learn about successful
community change
• Many community change initiatives
• Lots of investment in community change
• Do these initiatives make a difference?
– How do we know?
– Measuring change is difficult
Hierarchy of Community Impacts
Prepared by
Milan Wall, Co-Director
Heartland Center for Leadership
Development
Why Another Evaluation Model?
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Designed for the community leader
Scientific jargon is minimized
Is easy to utilize
Is not time-consuming
Allows for the assessment of impacts from the
start of implementation
Hierarchy of Community Impacts
Hierarchy of Community Impacts
A Leadership Development Program Example
• Activities
– Has a program been created?
– How many people are engaged?
• Outputs
– What is the program producing?
– Are participants attending?
Hierarchy of Community Impacts
A Leadership Development Program Example
• Commitments
– What are the graduates saying and what are they
doing?
• Expressed Commitments
• Acted Upon Commitments
• Outcomes
– What community betterment has resulted from
the graduates’ actions?
Hierarchy of Community Impacts
A Leadership Development Program Example
• Indicators of Systemic Change
– What long-term changes have been affected?
• has the pool of people engaged in community
leadership roles become more diversified?
• Are there more young people or people of color, or at
least new faces among emerging and engaged leaders?
Thirteen Cities. One Goal. Reduce Poverty.
The Complex Nature of Poverty
“Poverty is a complex issue. There is no single
cause and no one solution. Its successful
reduction, and ideally its eradication, require a
set of linked interventions undertaken by all
orders of government working in collaboration
with communities.”
Poverty Policy
Sherri Torjman,
Caledon Institute of Social Policy
October 2008
Vibrant Communities
An experiment designed to test a specific
way to address the complex realities of
poverty through local level action.
Theory of Change:
Guided by 5 principles & assisted by extra
supports provided by national sponsors –
local organizations and leaders could
revitalize poverty reduction efforts in their
communities and generate significantly
improved outcomes.
The Communities
Part One – Exploring Principles
The Approach
Sustainable
Livelihoods
Approach –
Assets Pentagon
Inner resources
Basic material
goods and services
•Self-awareness
•Self-esteem and selfconfidence
•Hope and motivation
Income, Savings
and Sources of
Financial Security
• Employment income
• Non-employment
income
• Savings and financial
assets
• Reduced debt/costs
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Financial
Assets
Social
Assets
Human
Assets
Skills, knowledge,
education & health
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Emergency supports
Food
Housing
Transportation
Dependent care
Health
Life skills
Financial literacy
Education
Employment Skills
Relationships
and Networks
• Civic participation
• Support networks
Four Levels of Community Outcomes
• Policy and Systems Change
• Increased Community
Capacity
• Increased Community
Engagement
• Decreased Poverty
Working Collaboratively, Communities can …
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Raise the profile of poverty.
Build a constituency for change.
Encourage collaborative ways of
working.
Begin to shift systems underlying
poverty.
Contribute to the asset-building
efforts for a large number of
people.
VC Success Factors
• Influential and credible convener(s)
• Cross-sector, connected leadership table
• Challenging community aspiration
• Clearly articulated purpose and approach
• High degree of resident mobilization
• Research which informs the work
Want to learn about
Vibrant Communities
Canada and its work?
www.tamarackcommunity.ca
Measuring Community Change
tkelly@aecf.org
September 20, 2011
Tom Kelly
Annie E. Casey Foundation
10 Implementation sites
2000 to 2010
White Center
Hartford
Providence
Milwaukee
Oakland
Des Moines
Indianapolis
Denver
Louisville
San Antonio
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Critical Success Questions
• Can positive outcomes be achieved for large
numbers of children and families in a
neighborhood of concentrated poverty?
• Can impact at the neighborhood level
influence local leaders, organizations,
systems, and funding?
• Can this work be sustained?
• Can this work be scaled?
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Achieving Dual-Generation Results
Site Strategies
Economic
Opportunities
Programs and
Initiatives
Social
Networks
Technical
Assistance
Co-investments
Effective
Services &
Supports
Families have increased earnings and
income
Families have increased assets
Children are healthy and prepared to
succeed in school
WHAT IT TAKES TO ACHIEVE RESULTS
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Broad agreement on results
Data, performance measurement, and managing to results
Partnerships among residents and institutions
Effective services & programs, linked to policy
Leveraging the resources of other funders and systems
Resident leadership
The Stages of Systemic Change
Beverly Parsons
InSites
Maintenance of
Old Systems
Awareness
Exploration
Transition
Predominance
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Key Elements of Change
Vision
Public & Political Support
Networking
Teaching & Learning
Roles & Responsibilities
Policy Alignment
New
Structures
Core Capacity Matrix
Business as
Usual
Awareness &
Demand
Exploring
Refining
Sustaining
Data for learning & accountability
Resident leadership, participation, and voice
Partnerships with key institutions
Shared vision & accountability
Policy & systems change
Implementation of effective strategies
Financing and resources
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Annual Assessment of Site Capacities
Process of Core Capacity Measurement
• Common cross-site understanding of stages,
key elements (capacities), and definitions
• Individualized indicators based on local
context for each capacity and stage
• Participatory reflection and self-assessment
of key stakeholders/actors (facilitated by
evaluators)
• Change measured against local baseline
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