Evidence2Success: Results from the Initial Demonstration and Next Steps

Introduction. Community prevention coalitions are congruent with the U.S. ideal of a participatory democracy and have been endorsed as efficient ways to improve public health outcomes. Despite recent demonstrated success of these efforts, there are challenges and cautions that need to be recognized when planning a new initiative or applying a model within a new setting. As a result, the Evidence2Success model is being carefully developed by the Annie E Casey Foundation and several other partners. This model works to achieve transformative system and community change to improve developmental outcomes in five critical areas for youth in diverse, low-income urban neighborhoods.

Methods. A multifaceted process evaluation with multiple tools, multiple participants, and multiple time points has been conducted to provide rich information on the pilot project in an urban area. Interviews with partnership members and key leaders were conducted at three different time points across three years; participant evaluation surveys of workshops and orientations have occurred; observations of community and citywide partnership and subcommittee meetings have occurred; implementation progress has been tracked with the Milestones & Benchmarks tool; and special reports from the lead coordinators and implementers within each involved public system have been completed.

Results. Results show that the training and technical assistance resources needed to support implementation decreased steadily over time as the pilot site grew its capacity to lead the effort. Positive changes in hypothesized outputs have occurred in many hypothesized key capacities. Results related to outputs are quite strong. Changes in the adoption scale, collaboration, shared accountability, support for prevention and evidence-based programming, and changes in financing cannot be restrained to impact an area that part of the larger citywide partnership. On the other hand, evidence-based program availability showed isolated improvements in the intervention communities when compared its comparison. Community voice and involvement in decision-making around youth programs have improved, but they are lower than expected. A mixture of financing strategies made this all possible, including redirecting public funds from high cost treatment settings to lower-cost, more effective prevention programs.

Discussion. This evaluation has provided evidence that the Evidence2Success framework is capable of guiding public systems, cities, and communities through a science-based decision-making process about youth health and development programs. Yet, areas of improvement have also been identified. While the framework is continuing to be implemented in the first site, it is simultaneously being revised and implemented by an additional three sites across the country.