By Megan Toohey and Emily Audet
“People often say that the data speaks for itself, but it doesn’t. It takes work to pull out important insights and to make the connection between what the data is telling us and what we should do differently.” – Megan Toohey
In October 2022, Megan Toohey, director of the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab’s Children & Families work, spoke with Octavia Shaw, Families First DC program manager, at the Together for Families Conference. They instructed an audience of almost 40 on how to use data-driven contract management tools to increase the effectiveness of Family Resource Centers in meeting families’ needs. When polled during the training, fewer than one in five participants expressed confidence in using performance data to inform program decisions.
One participant reflected, “We collect data, but truthfully, we don’t do much analyzing of it or using it to shift program outcomes or improve things, which we’ve known for a while is a problem, which is why we’re here today. So it’s really helpful to walk through concrete examples of how this looks.”
The Government Performance Lab (GPL) has developed a set of tools and practices to support a more data-driven approach—Active Contract Management, which involves the high-frequency and action-oriented use of data to improve outcomes from contracted services. Shaw and Toohey informed the audience about these strategies through an interactive exercise in data analysis and a case study of Washington, DC.
Active contract management differs from conventional contract management in its collaborative, data-driven approach to continuously improve service delivery.
Shaw shared how Families First DC, with support from the GPL, employed data-driven contract management to improve food access, among other things. In a focused “deep-dive” conversation about how well they were meeting families’ needs, Families First DC’s team noticed that food had consistently been the number one service requested from families for nearly nine months during the pandemic. In response, they worked closely with their providers, City-funded food banks, and other food organizations to increase food access at Washington’s Family Success Centers.
Through these efforts, Family Success Centers received $500,000 for nutrition and education programming, and an anonymous philanthropist donated $100,000 in grocery store gift cards. One of the centers, which had before only provided snacks, provided 200 food boxes with fresh fruits and vegetables and a protein. The district continues to work towards strengthening food security.
“Family Resource Centers often offer highly complex, diverse sets of supports. Washington, DC has set up innovative management strategies with our Family Success Center network. These strategies contributed to more effective supports for families, a better understanding of the impact of these supports, and additional funding for these investments.” – Octavia Shaw
At the end of the training, audience members reflected on how they would incorporate the lessons from the training to improve their work on family wellbeing.
One participant shared, “Part of my job is trying to get people excited about data collection, so that in and of itself is going to be a challenge, but somebody had said in the comments, ‘It’s actually kind of fun when you get curious about why something isn’t working.’ I’m just looking at this, and it would be a really fun exercise to do with my group to talk about, ‘OK, here’s this scenario. Why do you think that is?’ And see if I can take a different approach with this to try to get people excited about it.”
Learn more about the Government Performance Lab’s work on children and families' wellbeing. For more information about using innovative contract management to strengthen family resource hubs, see the GPL’s learning session with Octavia Shaw and other practitioners. For more information on Washington’s work to improve food access, see our Innovator Interview and Policy Brief.