Sources & Tools

A list of helpful sources for more information, curated by our learning and impact director

 

Community Planning

100% Community is a step-by-step guide to addressing health, safety, and education challenges through integrated community action.

Ensuring 10 Vital Services for Surviving and Thriving
This is the first book in a series addressing health, safety, and education challenges through integrated community action. It presents a rationale for the 100% project and a summary of books in the series.

Housing
The second book in the 100% Community series, 02 repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 42 is focused on community-based planning to ensure housing security and end homelessness.

Behavioral Health Care
The third book in the 100% Community series, 03 repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 44 is focused on community-based planning to ensure that community residents have access to behavioral health care.

Transportation
The fourth book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 45 is focused on community-based planning to ensure that residents reach all the resources they need using an accessible and reliable community-wide system of transportation.

Parent Supports
The fifth book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 46 is focused on community-based planning to ensure a community-wide system of parent support programs that meets the needs of all families.

Early Childhood Learning
The sixth book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 47 is focused on community-based planning to ensure that residents can access fully resourced schools.

Community Schools
The seventh book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 48 is focused on community-based planning to ensure that residents can access fully resourced schools.

Youth Mentoring
The eighth book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 49 is focused on community-based planning to ensure that mentorship is part of every young person’s life.

Job Training
The ninth book in the 100% Community series repeats the basic planning and evaluation chapters (Introduction and chapters 29, 30, and 31). Part Four—Chapter 50 is focused on community-based planning for a community-wide system of job-training and placement.

 

Evaluation Methods

Using Rapid-Cycle Research to Reach Goals: Awareness, Assessment, Adaptation, Acceleration
As a practical guide to the use of Rapid Cycle Research (RCR) in evaluation, this document focuses on the health care sector, but the methods are applicable to other sectors. Based on the concepts of Continuous Quality Improvement, the guide describes when to use RCR and provides discussions about tools to accelerate the assessment-to-adoption cycle.

Rapid Response Evaluation Methods
Containing the slides from a workshop of the 2009 annual meeting of the American Evaluation Association, this document presents a broad overview of rapid response evaluation methods with a focus on advocacy evaluation.

Methods of Rapid Evaluation, Assessment, and Appraisal
This article describes several rapid evaluation techniques, their strengths and limitations, and appropriate contexts for their use.

Rapid Evaluation Approaches
This document presents a framework of rapid evaluation methods from a systems point of view. Methods are recommended for simple process improvement projects, complicated organizational change programs, and large-scale systemic or population-based initiatives. Methods and applications are described in detail.

Rapid Evaluation
This document presents a short and clear definition of Rapid Evaluation, its application, and methods.

Applying a Rapid-Cycle Learning Approach to Accelerate Progress in Employment and Related Programs
In this webinar, you will hear why the Harvard Center on the Developing Child believes that building adult capabilities is critical to achieving “breakthrough outcomes” for children and why they believe rapid cycle learning is a critical component of getting to these breakthrough outcomes.

A Learning Approach to Monitoring and Evaluation
This journal article presents a model for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) as organizational learning and performance tools. It identifies four incentives that can help link M&E with organizational learning: the incentive to learn why; the incentive to learn from below; the incentive to learn collaboratively; and the incentive to take risks.

Going Beyond Mixed Methods to Mixed Approaches: A Systems Perspective for Asking the Right Questions
With a focus on the use of a systems approach to asking questions to evaluate the impact of complex interventions, this journal article suggests examining the intervention’s theory of change and prioritizing what evaluation questions need to be answered.

Aiming for Utility in ‘Systems-based Evaluation’: A Research-based Framework for Practitioners
This article uses the example of an HIV intervention in Zambia to outline a systems-based evaluation (SBE) model and concludes that that SBE leads to transformative learning that prompts participatory action.

Learning, Systems Concepts and Values in Evaluation: Proposal for an Exploratory Framework to Improve Coherence
This article maps three core systems concepts (interrelationships, perspectives, and boundaries) to a triple-loop learning model for evaluation. Each of these loops responds to three complementary questions: Are we doing things right? Are we doing the right things? How do we define “right”?

 

Workforce Development

What Works? A Meta-Analysis of Recent Active Labor Market Program Evaluations
This analysis covers over 200 recent studies of active labor market programs worldwide. It analyzes the programs by program type (training, job search assistance, etc.); by intake group (unemployment insurance recipients, long-term unemployed, etc.), and by age and gender. The study suggests that long-term focused programs are most effective. Females and participants who enter from long term unemployment tend to show stronger benefits from active labor market programs.

Which Program Characteristics Are Linked to Program Impacts? Lessons from the HPOG 1.0 Evaluation
A detailed review of a range of career pathway programs in the United States, this report finds that programs offering greater access to tuition and financial assistance, childcare, transportation, employment supports, and emergency assistance produce larger impacts on educational progress. Also, access to employment supports and social and other services is associated with larger impacts on employment and earnings.

Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education Career Pathways Program Profile: Instituto del Progreso Latino’s Carreras en Salud Program.
This report presents an overview of Carreras en Salud (Carreras), a career pathways program designed and operated by Instituto del Progreso Latino in Chicago, Illinois. Carreras helps low-skilled Latinos/as gain the necessary skills to move into certified nursing assistant (CNA) and licensed practical nursing (LPN) positions.

 

Systems Thinking