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Uncovering earlier opportunities to keep children safe: A data-driven prevention approach to reviewing and responding to child maltreatment fatalities

This technical guide outlines a data-driven approach for jurisdictions to design and implement strategies to better prevent child abuse and neglect fatalities and near-fatalities. It provides guidance for how agencies can improve upon existing fatality review processes by systematically reviewing all maltreatment fatalities to uncover weak points in the jurisdiction’s preventative ecosystem and identify opportunities for earlier intervention.

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Data-driven performance management: How judges in a Texas county reduced burdens on people awaiting trial and pretrial agency staff

By Hena Rafiq and Emily Audet

From October 2020 to June 2022, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL) led a pilot program in Harris County, Texas, to transform how judges received data from the pretrial services agency. Under the pilot, judges reduced the intensity of supervision requirements for over 2,200 defendants released into the community while awaiting trial...

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A “Health-First” Approach to Behavioral Health Crises in Washington, D.C.

By Benjamin Appleton and Emily Audet

The Community Response Team in Washington, D.C., has responded to thousands of crisis calls, including some diverted from 911. Two-person teams of responders with specialized training in behavioral health aim to de-escalate behavioral health- and mental health-related crises and often seek to connect individuals with the care they need to stabilize. At a recent panel hosted by Blue...

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Little Rock, AR Vendor Report Cards

 

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Little Rock adopt results-driven contracting strategies across its entire procurement portfolio, improving consistency, vendor management, and data usage throughout the City.

Little Rock aimed to reform its entire procurement portfolio and to improve the city’s procurement process. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, a new outcomes-focused procurement template was designed based on in-depth interviews, and...

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Boston, MA Vendor Diversity

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Boston improve its vendor diversity by contracting with more Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs).

Boston aimed to increase the racial and gender diversity of its vendors. The city established concrete vendor diversity goals and, with pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, created a performance tracking system to monitor progress, streamline procurement practices to improve accessibility and transparency, and...

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Louisville, KY Strategic Procurement System

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Louisville design and pilot a strategic procurement system to improve the outcomes of the City’s contracted dollars.

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Illinois Wraparound Services for Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice-Involved Youth

In Illinois, approximately 700 youth per year become simultaneously involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. These dually-involved youth experience very poor outcomes; on average 1,300 arrests per year and 230,000 days spent in congregate care. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, the state tested a new model for supporting families involved with multiple agencies and has re-engineered data systems to improve performance management and referral processes. It now takes the state child welfare agency less than three days to identify a dually-involved youth,...

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Rhode Island TANF Work Supports

Improving workforce participation and employment outcomes for TANF employment programs through more integrated service array and active contract management

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New York City Child Welfare

 

The Government Performance Lab (GPL) provided pro-bono technical assistance to help New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services better identify caregivers with substance use concerns in child welfare investigations and match them with appropriate support, in an effort to reduce the number of incidences of child abuse and neglect and improve caregiver health.

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Massachusetts Permanent Supportive Housing Pay for Success

In 2012, Massachusetts was home to 1,200 chronically homeless individuals, who were among the highest utilizers of expensive emergency services such as shelter, hospital, and jail beds. To better serve this population, the Massachusetts Supportive Housing Pay for Success project aimed to shift spending on homelessness away from temporary shelters towards permanent supportive housing. The GPL worked with project partners to remove funding barriers, allowing for the establishment of 500 housing units across the state and greater access to wraparound,...

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South Carolina Nurse Family Partnership Pay for Success

Striving to lower rates of preterm births and child injuries, the South Carolina Nurse-Family Partnership aims to give new moms the care they need to have healthy pregnancies and babies. The GPL worked with South Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (SCDHHS) to provide nurse home visiting services to 4,000 low-income, first-time mothers from the second trimester of their pregnancy until their child’s second birthday. The model incentivizes NFP to focus on enrolling mothers from low-income zip codes, reducing child injuries and pre-term births, and increasing healthy birth...

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Massachusetts Pathways to Economic Advancement Pay for Success

While Massachusetts has some of the highest educational performance in the country, the state continues to face challenges in supporting the employment and career success of English language learners and those who have not achieved high school credentials. With pro bono technical assistance from the GPL, Massachusetts launched a project to provide vocationally-oriented adult basic education and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services to approximately 2,000 adults over the course of three years. The program is expected to improve earnings and education outcomes...

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California Department of Social Services SNAP Job Training and Employment Services

The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) operates a workforce development program for CalFresh recipients called SNAP Employment and Training (E&T). In California, counties run their own E&T programs, with funding provided by the state and federal governments. GPL helped expand and improve E&T programming in three ways. First, GPL helped the state explore new ways to use federal matching funds that can create a perpetual, sustainable funding stream with a one-time investment of state dollars. Second, GPL facilitated a data match of county E&T...

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Illinois Vocational Progams for Corrections Performance Improvement

Improving employment outcomes for individuals exiting incarceration by reforming in-facility vocational programming

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Little Rock, AR Vendor Report Cards

 

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help Little Rock adopt results-driven contracting strategies across its entire procurement portfolio, improving consistency, vendor management, and data usage throughout the City.

Little Rock aimed to reform its entire procurement portfolio and to improve the city’s procurement process. With pro-bono technical assistance from the GPL, a new outcomes-focused procurement template was designed based on in-depth interviews, and...

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Boston, MA Procurement for Bike Share Operator

Boston faced a number of challenges with its bike share system – some stations frequently had no available bikes while others were completely full, total ridership was lower than expected, and access was limited in low-income and minority communities. To address these challenges, the GPL provided pro bono technical assistance to help the city reshape the bike share system through the procurement of a new system operator. The procurement implemented performance metrics that better...

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Highlights

Concord Monitor: NH Waypoint to start new voluntary services program to head off child neglect and abuse

December 5, 2020

The Concord Monitor wrote a piece covering the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement of partnerships with two social service agencies to provide community-based voluntary services for at-risk children and families. Read the story, the...

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New Hampshire Union Leader: NH health officials say new partnerships will provide services for at-risk youth, families

November 30, 2020

The New Hampshire Union Leader wrote a piece covering the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement of partnerships with two social service agencies to provide community-based voluntary services for at-risk children and families. Read the story, the...

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