The Larry King Center for Building Childrens Futures Laura Y. Clark - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Larry King Center for Building Children’s Futures

Laura Y. Clark1, M.A., Ryan P. Kilm er2, Ph.D., Jam es R. Cook2, Ph.D., and Brett A. Loftis 1, J.D.

1Council for Children’s Rights, Charlotte, NC 2University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Today’s Presentation

• History of Charlotte’s initiatives for children
• Roles of the Larry King Center
• Selected Accomplishments
• Current initiatives & staffing
• Evaluation of the LKC
• Partnership with UNC Charlotte
• Challenges & Opportunities

• For nearly three decades, Charlotte has attempted to

prioritize children’s needs and create plans to address those needs – Children’s Sum m its (1980s and 1990s) – Blue Print for Children (late 1990s) – Core Values for Children (2000) – United Agenda for Children (2004) – United Way prioritization process (2007)

History of Charlotte’s Children’s Initiatives

Past Community Efforts…

• Identified core community issues that warrant

attention to ensure children are safe, healthy, and educated

• Created reports that heightened awareness of

children’s issues

• Stimulated desire in the community to take

action

They failed to develop the necessary infrastructure to drive change….

• No single point of accountability for developing

strategies to change public policy

• Disjointed engagement and education of the community

about children’s issues

• No collection and dissemination of data to help inform

decision making

• No ‘driver’ for the work to create change at the overall

community level

But…

Roles of the Larry King Center

Catalyst for Change

Research & Evaluation Public Policy Strategic Planning

Public Relations & Awareness

• To improve programming and outcomes for

children and families, the Center works to

– Bridge the science-practice gap by collaborating with providers and researchers – Connect local agencies with research resources – Identify research-based practices to implement locally – Identify systemic issues to target via advocacy and community-building efforts – Use data and evaluation research to inform decisions regarding training, the allocation of funds, community practices, and policy

‘Connecting the Dots’:

Selected Key Objectives

Role Descriptions

In-house activities

• Develop annual policy

agenda and identify strategies to move agenda forward

• Work directly with

policymakers to shift legislation and other policies to support LKC activities

• Convene stakeholders to

speak as one voice to policymakers

• Provide policy support to

planning activities

Public policy Public awareness/ Community engagement Research & data Strategic planning & convening

In-house activities

• Build a research repository

around children’s issues, including evidence-based practices

• Develop community

structure and relationships to increase use of research in decision making

• Build community capacity

for effective program evaluation

• Manage evaluation of LKC;

ensure reporting to stakeholders

• Support planning, policy,

and awareness roles with relevant research In-house activities

• Support planning process

–Internal project manager: Create the plan –External project manager: Provide a draft plan or planning template

• Incorporate evidence-based

practices in strategies

• Keep stakeholders bought in

and informed

• Work behind the scenes to

assure progress, identify

• bstacles, and provide

solutions

• Coordinate LKC roles
• Support process tracking
• Facilitate meetings
• Create or manage budget

In-house activities

• Develop relationships with

key stakeholders to support work of LKC

• Educate and engage

community around LKC activities: –Actively participate in existing community forums –Leverage focused partner communications to target key populations

• Engage media to influence

policymaking

• Develop and support

community governance structure

• Host community forums

related to LKC activities

Roles of the Larry King Center Exam ple: Free/ Reduced School Lunch Policy

Researched the num ber

• f children im pacted by

the problem Convened group of com m unity partners to address issue Wrote new school policy to allow students to continue to receive hot lunch Utilized m edia

• utlets to raise

awareness of issue

Initial Priority Areas

• Improve school readiness
• Reduce the incidence and impact of child abuse and

neglect

• Increase access to and utilization of quality health &

mental health services

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Interm ediate outcom es

A Mecklenburg County where all children grow up safe, healthy, and educated

Approach Ultim ate goal

All youth aged 0-21 in Mecklenburg County

Target population

Work with community and use research to set community agenda

• Select priorities
• Select indicators

Work with community to develop plans to attack each initiative

• Plans will encompass four roles:

– Policy – Public awareness – Research and evaluation – Strategic planning and convening

Drive plan execution

• Execute on plans using policy, public

awareness, and research and data. Broker in resources where needed

• Project manage on three levels
• 1. Internally, across all three priority

areas

• 2. Internally, leading, coordinating,

linking 4 roles for each priority

• 3. Externally, leading, coordinating,

linking work of convened groups

Program quality improves

• Organizations

adopt evidence- based practices

• Funding shifts

to evidence- based practices Program mix improves

• Service

providers change offerings Policies change

• Government

funding shifts

• Other policies

shift to support priorities Shorter-term goals met

• Process
• Interme-

diate indicators Longer-term goals met

• Priority

indicators improve

• Funder/

community ROI improves

• Citizen

awareness of children’s issues increases

Intended Impact & Theory of Change

Current Staffing

• Executive Director – 80% of time dedicated to Larry King Center
• Director of Research & Evaluation
• Director of Strategy & Policy
• Strategy & Policy Associate
• Nurse-Family Partnership Expansion Coordinator
• Graduate Student support
• By end of year 3, plan to have 12 FTEs

Selected Accomplishments to Date

• Collaborated with state partners to lobby legislation for the 2009 NC

Legislative Session

• Responded to over 2 dozen agency requests for assistance with

research and evaluation

• Completed outcomes training for United Way agencies
• Served as local affiliate for Child Abuse Awareness & Prevention

Month

• Hosted multiple community forums
• Participated in joint human services planning for Housing Authority

and Department of Social Services

Current Initiatives

• Expansion planning for Nurse-Family Partnership
• Development of a public policy agenda for priority areas
• Community Indicators Project
• Evaluation capacity building with several local non-

profits

Evaluation

• Need to evaluate both process and outcomes
• Need external evaluator
• Skeleton process evaluation is in progress
• Overarching objectives of outcome work:
• Document the LKC’s value to the community
• Demonstrate LKC’s association with better outcomes

for children

• One challenge: limited extant research on intermediaries

Partnership with UNC Charlotte

• University faculty - partners/ collaborators in multiple

departments (psychology, social work, education, public policy)

• Opportunities for interns
• Research committee
• Helps inform and guide decision-making
• Brings additional expertise to the complex issues

involved

• Urban Institute

– Indicators project

• Institute for Social Capital

– Creating a database that can be used to inform the LKC

Partnership with UNC Charlotte - II

Challenges & Opportunities

• Balancing long-term planning with immediate

community needs (e.g., projects vs. mission)

• Evaluating our progress
• Developing the community relationships necessary to

sustain change

• Communicating our work clearly to stakeholders
• Sustainable funding

Laura Y. Clark, M.A. Laura@cfcrights.org Ryan P. Kilmer, Ph.D. rpkilmer@uncc.edu Jim Cook, Ph.D. jcook@uncc.edu Brett A. Loftis, J.D. Brett@cfcrights.org

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