The Colorado Lab provided guidance and support to CDEC in creating two new videos about Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) Consultation. The videos aim to grow understanding about how ECMH Consultation helps early childhood professionals and families across the state promote the mental health and healthy social-emotional development of young children.
The Colorado Lab has developed a new Evidence-Based Decision-Making (EBDM) Glossary of Terms to support decision-makers, agency leadership, and staff in gaining a common understanding of EBDM in policymaking.
Colorado’s five-year vision for Evidence-Based Decision-Making (EBDM) in policymaking was created collaboratively by members of the executive and legislative branches, non-governmental partners, and the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab (Colorado Lab). EBDM is recognized as an important means to drive smart state investments, continuous quality improvement, innovation, and meaningful outcomes.
This project will inform Colorado’s efforts to increase college attainment by supporting students’ needs for food and related human services. Many college students struggle with food insecurity, and evidence increasingly suggests that food insecurity can act as a barrier to postsecondary success. Colorado state agencies and postsecondary institutions are looking for ways to expand student participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to ensure that students receive nutritional support and to advance equity in postsecondary education.
On September 19, the Colorado Lab’s Kristin Klopfenstein and Lauren Gase, along with Allison Metz from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Social Work and Just Learning Systems’ Kirsten Kainz, presented the webinar “Exploring Opportunities for Evaluators and Implementation Practitioners To Work Together To Create Sustainable and Equitable Change.”
The Colorado Lab convened all of the evaluation teams participating in the Early Childhood Evaluation Hub. Each team shared information about the evaluations of the stimulus-funded activities they are conducting and collectively discussed cross-cutting themes.
The Colorado Lab partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to study how research evidence can be best used in policymaking to drive equitable opportunities in perinatal health. Authorized by SB21-194 (Maternal Health Providers), the study used a mixed methods approach, including expert interviews with state government, policy, community, and family leaders.
The Colorado Lab periodically issues a call for statisticians to provide analytic support for various projects. Through our last open call in May 2023, we engaged Drs. Stephen Billings and Philip Pendergast.
Colorado is a recognized leader nationally in evidence-based policymaking. Consistent use of data and research is increasingly understood to be key to achieving policies that are equitable, efficient, and effective. The Colorado Lab received philanthropic support to facilitate the development of a commonly accepted vision for Colorado’s approach to evidence-based decision-making.
The Colorado Lab, in colloraboration with Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative and Trendlines Colorado, propose to launch the Colorado Wages and Outcomes Results Coalition (Colorado WORC) to measure learner outcomes and equity gaps. This four-year initiative aims build stronger evidence of effectiveness for a cohort of training and postsecondary providers operating in Colorado.