To fulfill our mission of ensuring every child in Durham enters school ready to succeed, the Partnership supports early childhood programs that promote healthy development and learning and enhance access to high-quality child care. As the convener and facilitator of Durham’s early childhood system, it is our job to lead community strategies that respond to the needs of all 23,000 young children in Durham.
In order to do so, we invest in and work alongside high-quality early childhood programs with many collaborative partners. Each year, we evaluate the programs we fund to measure impact, track community indicators and needs, and report to our stakeholders on how we are doing in our efforts to prepare all children for school.
All of our funded partners provide evidence-based/evidence-informed services that are monitored and evaluated to document real impact in Durham. Partnership staff works with each program to develop the projected services and outcomes which provide the evaluation plan for the fiscal year. Reporting and monitoring throughout the year ensures that these goals are met, and we hold our own community initiatives, such as the Touchpoints Collaborative and the Transition to Kindergarten Initiative, to the same high standards. We continue to strengthen our evaluation methods in order to have a more robust view of the efficacy of our programs.
In addition to staff, the Partnership’s Evaluation Committee plays a key role in strengthening the quality of data available to inform programming decisions. The committee of experts from the Durham community meets quarterly and provides input on evaluation methods, survey tools, and early childhood data sources. The goal of the committee is to develop a common understanding of community outcomes and indicators, and to ensure that meaningful data is collected to inform the Partnership’s work towards positive outcomes for young children in Durham.
This year, we’ve a created a series of infographics to provide an overview of the impact of Partnership programs, at both the program and community level. Each day this week we will post a new infographic right here on this blog to showcase the great work being accomplished in the following areas: increasing access to high-quality child care, improving the quality of child care, supporting families, and mobilizing community partners.
Be sure to check back each day!
