BACKGROUND: The Family Success Alliance (FSA) is a place-based, collective impact initiative that provides a “pipeline” of evidence-based programs, services, and supports from cradle to career for children and families in Orange County, NC. A fundamental principle of collective impact is the importance of a shared measurement system for data-driven decision making, and this project facilitated the design and onboarding of the measurement system, Efforts to Outcomes (ETO), by Social Solutions, Inc. This system is a collaborative case management website that allows FSA to track participants across all contacts with Alliance partners and maintain one shared database. The data sharing approach allows responsibility for data management to be divided amongst partners and lessens partners’ burden of work. The unified database also ensures higher standards of data quality and administration.
METHODS: Key informant interviews were conducted with community partners, backbone staff, enterprise administrators, and the software developers to gather requirements, identify appropriate indicators, design workflows, and optimize forms and user interfaces. Multiple trainings and pilots were conducted to obtain internal stakeholder feedback, and workflows, indicators, and forms were updated as necessary. Program data were entered, cleaned, reconciled, and updated.
RESULTS: The Family Success Alliance ETO site was configured to meet user and stakeholder needs. After nine internal staff were trained and utilizing the system, nine data liaisons for community partners were onboarded to ETO in an iterative process of design, training, feedback, and updates. A number of partners had unique data and reporting needs, and the system was customized to fit their requirements. Furthermore, by designing the system with evaluation in mind, the data easily contribute to both short- and long-term program evaluation. Key principles of trust, accountability, and equity were vital in the effective implementation and onboarding of the system, and partner relationships were strengthened through this process.
CONCLUSIONS: ETO will be an effective tool for managing participant data, measuring program outcomes, and evaluating the impact of the Alliance. No database can be one-size-fits-all, and when working with community partners it is important to maintain flexibility in an iterative process. Trust in appropriate measures of data privacy, confidentiality, and security across all stakeholders is vital in facilitating system implementation, and building relationships among partners is the most important factor ensuring project success. This process exemplifies the art, as well as the science, of database management.