Building Capacity to Test Policy Innovations

• In Event: From Research to Action: How Two-Generation Approaches Can Inform Policy Change

Abstract

To be responsive to their communities, nonprofits must be nimble in testing new approaches and policy innovations. In Memphis, TN, Agape Child & Family Services, a poverty fighting, place-based, cradle to career and beyond, two-generation organization has been strengthening its capacity to innovate and learn through a collaboration with Mathematica, a national research organization, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Through a multiple year collaboration, Mathematica trained Agape on the Learn, Innovate, Improve framework (LI2), an equity-focused improvement approach; provided coaching; and progressively transferred responsibility for leading testing efforts focused on different aspects of Agape’s 2Gen model. For example, in 2021, Mathematica collaborated with Agape to maintain high-quality services during the pandemic by iterating on its approach to virtual services, as needs among its participants were heighted from job loss and school closures. With renewed conversations about universal basic income as a promising family support1, Agape tested approaches to supporting participants by providing a stipend and budgeting workshops and gradually scaling the initiative across the agency. Being intentional in their approach to this change helped the agency to think about considerations with different programs as they scaled the model, which supports sustainability. This year, the agency is focusing on how to strengthen its 2Gen model by enhancing its Voice & Choice approach, which allows participants to choose how they interact with the agency. The agency has used a Voice & Choice framework for several years but is attempting to formalize the model and assess its importance to 2Gen delivery, an innovation in human services. The agency’s goal is to share the LI2 approach with partners so they can best respond to changing community circumstances as a collective. What Agape learns about how to best support families through its 2Gen model strengthens their internal approach and can influence local and state policy innovation, as organization-level improvements get scaled to wider audiences. Given their connections to the communities they serve, building the capacity of community-based agencies to experiment and learn offers a way to connect communities to improvement efforts and build evidence before taking promising practices to scale.  

Learn more about the learning approach used in this work at Annie E. Casey’s site. This guide describes the equity-focused approach to rapid cycle learning. Read about the start of this work in a report focusing on the early years of the collaboration.  

 

Author

• Annie Buonaspina, Mathematica
  Presenting Author