Planning and Research

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The Children’s Trust places its emphasis on strategic investments in prevention and early intervention programming that improves child health, safety and development and promotes increased parental and community involvement on behalf of all children. The Children’s Trust coordinates with other local funders and planning entities to:

1. Sustain and expand high quality prevention and early intervention services for children, youth and families.
2. Improve systems of care through increased coordination and reduced fragmentation of services for children, youth and families in need.
3. Support knowledge development and quality improvement in the field of child and family service delivery.
4. Advocate for child and family-friendly laws and policies at the local, state and federal levels.

We stress accountability and the need to document the impact of funded investments, as well as making data-informed planning decisions. By statute, The Children's Trust is required to collect statistical data and conduct research that informs the needs of children in the county. More specifically, the objectives of the Research and Evaluation Department are to:

• Track, analyze and disseminate information regarding the ongoing needs and status of the well-being of Miami-Dade County’s children and families for use in planning and evaluation
• Increase the ability of funded service providers to measure and demonstrate program effectiveness and outcomes
• Support the ongoing implementation of continuous quality improvement processes within The Children’s Trust and among funded provider organizations
• Facilitate data-informed and data-driven decision-making and investments for child and family services through access to timely and accurate research and evaluation results
• Collect data to tell the story of The Children’s Trust's activities, successes and impact within the community

Comprehensive and accurate statistical data help our community understand our progress toward fulfilling our mission. To ensure that The Children's Trust’s strategic investment plan reflects the real needs of children and families, all major service initiatives are regularly evaluated to measure participant outcomes, as well as to identify areas where programs can improve. In addition, we conduct countywide surveys to assess the current needs of children, youth and families in our community. Currently, The Childrens' Trust is working with Placebase to build an interactive mapping component to our Web site that will be populated with community resources/assets, as well as key indicators and administrative data related to child health and well-being.

• Board Presentation (May 2007): How Do Outcomes and Program Evaluation Fit?
  This document contains an overview of The Children’s Trust’s efforts to assess progress at multiple levels of contracts, strategies, and community
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• The Children's Trust Logic Model
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