Colorado Lab Director, Dr. Kristin Klopfenstein, was invited to serve as a panel judge for the 2021 Tom Clements Better Government Award. In this blog post, Dr. Klopfenstein reflects on the awards and nominees.
The Colorado Lab will serve as the coordinator of Family First rigorous evaluation efforts on behalf of the State to ensure strategic investments in evidence-building for services/programs positioned to meet the needs of Colorado’s children, youth, and families.
A warm welcome to Sara Bayless as she partners with the Colorado Lab in support of our work with the Colorado Partnership for Thriving Families (Partnership). Dr. Bayless, who serves as a Director at the OMNI Institute, is skilled in conducting research and evaluation that helps organizations advance the evidence for their social programming.
The Colorado Lab is working with eight District Attorneys’ (DAs) Offices in Colorado to develop data dashboards to assist them with tracking progress toward greater efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness. The second cross-jurisdiction learning meeting took place last month, providing an opportunity for offices to hear from, connect with, and learn from each other.
The Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel (ORPC) is accepting referrals for indigent parents in Jefferson County whose unmet legal needs may be affecting the safety of their children.
The Colorado Lab seeks to add a postdoctoral researcher to support evidence-building among recipients of Response, Innovation, and Student Equity (RISE) Education Funds.
SB 21-194 (Maternal Health) includes a provision authorizing a study on the use of research evidence (URE) in policies related to the perinatal period in Colorado. The Colorado Lab partnered with CDPHE to conduct this study and develop data-informed guidance for improving URE in policy creation and uptake, with the goal of reducing perinatal health disparities.
The Family Support through Primary Prevention (FSPP) project is intended to reduce child maltreatment and improve family well-being for Colorado families ages prenatal to 5, with a focus on the first year of life. The Colorado Lab serves as the skilled evaluator to build evidence for the primary prevention strategies prioritized by FSPP partners.
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) is dedicated to evaluating stimulus-funded activities to ensure the goals of the funds were met and to assess their influence on providers, families, and the workforce supporting young children. CDEC partnered with the Colorado Lab to support evaluation planning of the stimulus-funded activities so the best possible evaluation strategies were pursued.
To advance Colorado’s vision that all children are ready for school when entering kindergarten, the Office of Early Childhood in the Colorado Department of Human Services launched the Home Visiting for Home Child Care Providers pilot program in 2019.