Evaluation of 2007-08 Knight News Challenge Winners

Evaluation of 2007-08 Knight News Challenge Winners
The Knight News Challenge is a five-year media innovation contest designed to reward new ideas for gathering, sharing and using local news and information. Knight Foundation launched the contest in September 2006, at a time when the news industry was in great flux, as part of an effort to encourage greater experimentation in the field of journalism and media. LFA Group conducted an interim assessment and produced a cross-cutting evaluation report as well as a series of seven cluster reports on different groups of 2007-2008 winners.

Evaluation of the Ashoka News & Knowledge Fellows

Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, in partnership with the John S. and James L. knight Foundation, engaged LFA Group to evaluate the work of 30 News & Knowledge Fellows working around the world to increase information quality, supply, and access so that communities can identify and engage in ways to improve their circumstances.

Understanding the Organizational Capacities that Support Scaling Social Impact

With funding from the Skoll Foundation, LFA Group conducted case study research on 30 social entrepreneurships around the world that have successfully scaled up their social innovations. The research identified how seven organizational capacities supported successful scaling.

LFA Group’s Handbook on Evaluation for Organizational Learning

Educating Plus 50 Learners: Opportunities for Community Colleges

LFA Group collaborated with the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to develop a national survey of community colleges (the survey was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies). This survey was designed to assess the progress of community colleges in offering programming for students 50 and older. Of those that responded (204 out of all 1,174 community colleges nationwide), 84% reported having such programs (either in academics and enrichment, workforce training and career development, or volunteering). However, most colleges simply take existing offerings and market them to this demographic. Colleges still have a long way to go in truly customizing programming to this important age group.

Executive Summary of Educating Plus 50 Learners

This is a standalone executive summary of the full report on community college programs for students 50 and over. It concentrates on calls to action for community colleges.

Stanford Social Innovation Review Environmental Education Case Study

Stanford Social Innovation Review published this case study written by Steven LaFrance and Nancy Latham on a capacity-building initiative designed to advance the field of environmental education provided in Silicon Valley.

Building the Field that Builds the Future

“Building the Field that Builds the Future” provides a summary of results LFA Group found in our comprehensive, quasi-experimental study of the San Francisco CARES (Compensation and Retention Encourage Stability) and WAGES Plus (Wage Augmentation Funding for Entry-Level Staff Plus) programs. Through CARES, early childhood educators receive stipends to engage in professional development. WAGES Plus raises early childhood education provider wages to incent retention in the field. Both programs ultimately aim to increase the quality of care children receive from participating providers.

Full Service Community Schools: Evaluation of Two Iowa Middle Schools

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation identifies, funds, evaluates, and build the capacities of and replicates multiple solution ventures for the inner city, the truly disadvantaged, children, youth and families. Through national policy reports, the Eisenhower Foundation communicates what works (and what doesn’t) to citizens, media and decision makers. The Eisenhower Foundation funded the replication of the Full Service Community Schools model (FSCS) in six middle schools in four states (Washington, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Maryland) from 2002 to 2006. LFA Group conducted a mixed-methods evaluation of youth development and academic achievement outcomes for the youth at these schools. The final report for the two schools in Iowa shows that youth who participate in FSCS programs have slightly more positive findings for behavior, academic achievement, school attachment, and positive adult relationships.

Foster Youth Housing Initiative

The Foster Youth Housing Initiative (FYHI) was a two-year funding collaborative launched in January 2006 by a funders collaborative that included The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, and the Sobrato Family Foundation. The initiative committed $2.125 million dollars to support this work. FYHI was designed to help former foster youth obtain and maintain permanent housing by funding programs that effect change in three different ways: direct services for youth, housing capacity for this population, and systems change. Together, these three tracks represented a strategy that focused on getting currently homeless youth into housing, making more housing available for future emancipating youth, and creating systems change to eliminate homelessness for former foster youth. The final report showed excellent outcomes for all three tracks of the initiative. Youth had positive outcomes for housing, education, and employment; 21 housing units were for former foster youth had been developed and leased up, with approximately an additional 90 units in the pipeline; and the Burton Foundation’s advocacy contributed to a three-fold increased in California funding for housing and services for former foster youth (THP+ funding), an increase in the number of counties participating in THP+ (from 5 to 44 counties), and an increase in the number of youth being housed in THP+ housing (from 200 to 1300).

Shifting Gears Executive Summary

Nancy Latham. September 2008.
In June 2004, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation launched the three-year Shifting Gears Initiative: Fast Track to Housing for Bay Area Families. Shifting Gears was a multi-year initiative that worked toward a better future in which periods of family homelessness in the Bay Area are shortened, formerly homeless families are more successful at retaining housing, and fewer at-risk families become homeless. The initiative convened a learning community for a cohort of nine outstanding Bay Area homeless family service providers, and provided them with two-year program development grants. The learning community supported the cohort in shifting away from “managing” homelessness toward programs and strategies aimed at ending homelessness (e.g. rapid re-housing, eviction prevention, and investment in permanent supportive housing). This brief summarizes the evaluation findings across all nine organizations, and also includes individual case studies for three of the grantees.