| First 5 LA’s 2020-28 Strategic Plan Review and Refinements: Taking place every three years as outlined in the 2020-28 Strategic Plan, the first cycle of the review and refinement process has been underway since July 2022 and will continue through 2023. Throughout 2023, First 5 LA will continue to review and refine our 2020-28 Strategic Plan. For more information on First 5 LA’s Strategic Plan Review and Refinement, please visit this page. |
What we measure, we can improve. As we work toward our North Star, First 5 LA is developing and implementing the Impact Framework, a tool that will help us understand our progress on our 2020-2028 Strategic Plan. The Impact Framework identifies data that will help us:
- Gauge how well systems are working for children and families
- Assess the effectiveness of our systems change strategies
- Guide course-correction
- Understand the context within which we are working in L.A. County and inform our strategies
The Impact Framework focuses on four types of data:
RESULTS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES:
These are four optimal conditions that we believe family-serving systems can facilitate to ensure children are ready for kindergarten:
- Families have the resources, opportunities and relationships to optimize their child’s development.
- Children receive early and timely developmental supports and services.
- Children are safe from abuse, neglect, and other trauma.
- Children have high-quality early care and education experiences.
The Impact Framework identifies 10 indicators or metrics we will track that will help us gauge how well health, home visiting, early education, child welfare and other family-serving systems are working.
LONG-TERM SYSTEM OUTCOMES:
To achieve the conditions described in the Results for Children and Families, family-serving systems that serve them must be responsive to their needs. Over the next decade, we envision that family-serving systems will be accessible, quality, aligned and sustainable – what we refer to in the Impact Framework as our Long-Term System Outcomes.
ACCESSIBLE:
Public systems and community systems provide equitable access to quality supports for all young children.
QUALITY:
Public and community systems reflect parent priorities, diverse community needs, and standards that drive results for children.
ALIGNED:
Public and community systems connect and link quality supports for children and families.
SUSTAINABLE:
Funding, policies, and public support advance sustainable and equitable investments in young children.
SHORT-TERM MARKERS OF PROGRESS:
There are improvements to family-serving systems we expect to see from our strategic priorities sooner in the next three years and that serve as early markers of progress. These Short-Term Markers of Progress will help us guide our investments and strategic course-corrections based on what we learn from our investments.
CONTEXTUAL INDICATORS:
First 5 LA’s work does not occur in a vacuum. To help us better understand and respond to the needs of children and their families, our Impact Framework collects information on conditions throughout L.A. County, including:
- Child characteristics such as birth rates, low-birth weight rates, and infant mortality rates
- Maternal characteristics such as prenatal care and postpartum care rates
- Family characteristics such as poverty, food security and homelessness
- Community characteristics such as the California Healthy Place Index
These Contextual Indicators can lend insight into the conditions of children and families in L.A. County, as well as information we can use to inform our strategies.
Data from the Impact Framework will be reviewed in two cycles:
* Annual reviews of all available data to inform our how we do our work
* Three-year reviews of the indicator data for System Outcomes and Results for Children and Families to refine the strategies and objectives we are using to reach our North Star
We are also developing plans for our review cycles to ensure we’re incorporating the Impact Framework data and other inputs into how we measure our effectiveness as an organization.
* Other inputs: Other inputs can inform our understanding of what’s working and what we can do better— the experiences of children and families, the feedback from our grantees and partners, and new data and research that emerge over time
These inputs can help us determine the impact of our grantmaking strategies, decide how and if we need to shift our focus and learn more about how we can support the systems that serve L.A. County’s children and families.
As First 5 LA’s work continues to evolve, we will periodically review the Impact Framework indicators to determine if they need to be revised or expanded.
