Learning Conversations -Notes and Data July 2004-June 2007
“ Evaluation will be approached as a continuous learning opportunity to improve services and outcomes. This will be done in a partnership between the CFC and its Partner Network in order to discover the best approaches to achieving and sustaining comprehensive child, family and community outcomes, rather than as a means to control or coerce services delivery partners”.
CFC Plan, August 2000
What is Learning Conversations on Achievement of Outcomes
From the very beginning, the work of the Children and Families Commission (CFC) in Placer County has been “outcome” focused. Starting with an inclusive community planning strategy that culminated in our “Request for Results” process, and continuing with the provision of technical assistance to help our partners articulate outcomes and define performance measures (both qualitative and quantitative). We are now in the process of following-up with each partner to analyze and learn from the performance data that is collected.
We have an appreciation for the central role of relationships in the CFC Partner Network that has been formed to provide services to the 0-5 population. Information flow is critical to the healthy development of these relationships and we are fostering that information flow by Sharing the Learning from our data conversations. To do this we set up meetings with each partner where we try to create safe, non-judgmental spaces for conversation and communication related to data that has been collected to show achievement of outcomes. At the end of each data conversation we capture any highlights and learning that emerged from the conversations and we send that information to the entire network. The theory is that our CFC Partner Network is an adaptive interconnected system like the neurons in the young brain. By providing a simple feedback loop to exchange outcome data (i.e., information) from one part of the system to the rest of the system we hope to strengthen the system and foster system-wide knowledge about what is happening with our 0-5 population countywide.
It is our hope that this information flow and relationship building will create sustainable linkages throughout the CFC Partner Network that will help it adapt and provide meaningful, results-oriented services to the 0-5 population for years to come.
The following are short summaries of the various “learning conversations” that we have held on an ongoing basis.