Strategic Consultation

We provide strategic consultation on whatever evidence-building challenge is keeping you up at night. These engagements take a wide variety of forms.

For example, we support departments in troubleshooting data and methodological issues on difficult internal evaluation projects. While these cases tend to focus on fairly narrow issues, we also support agencies in addressing broader organizational challenges. In advance of the launch of the Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) in July 2022, we provided recommendations about the early childhood data and technology capacities that the new department would require to better understand which families are being served, how, and where to focus resources to address unmet needs.

Data Integration Initiatives

Given our unique history with the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC), we are well-positioned to help government and community partners test drive how larger data integration initiatives are likely to roll out using LINC as a sandbox.

For example, in partnership with the Colorado Department of Human Services and with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, we are connecting data across public systems and nonprofit service providers to yield more complete estimates of youth homelessness than each individual system can produce on its own. With more complete estimates, state agencies and service providers can better serve and advocate for the vulnerable population of youth experiencing homelessness. Learn more about this project here.

Supporting Evidence-Based Decision Making

The Colorado Lab also supports evidence-based decision making in a variety of ways. In coordination with the Governor’s Office of Operations, we support agencies in developing theories of change and identifying aligned performance measures for their Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). This effort is intended to increase the agencies’ effectiveness at meeting their WIGs. Progress toward each WIG is reported on the Governor’s dashboard.

Reach out if you would also like to:

  • Better understand a program’s implementation- or evidence-related problem or opportunity, regardless of topic area.
  • Develop or implement a collaborative evidence-building strategy with partners.
  • Surface assumptions and develop shared priorities around program implementation and/or evidence building within your team.
  • Identify and assess what it looks like for your program to be “fully implemented.”
  • Consider ways to maximize the reach and/or effectiveness of your work.
  • Identify strategies to enhance the impact of programs or practices for historically underserved populations.
  • Build processes for your team to systematically review and make meaning of data as part of business as usual operations.
  • Build evidence for mature or innovative programs or practices.
  • Improve your team’s ability to engage in evidence-based decision making.
  • Break down data silos and effectively translate research into practice and policy.

The Colorado Lab supports state and local government and community partners regardless of topic area. Our staff are trained across a wide range of subjects from economics to counseling psychology to early childhood to medical anthropology, and we have connections with a wide range of subject matter experts. Our approach to building evidence is adaptable and we are always eager to learn new ways of thinking.

Every project is different, so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need help. If we aren’t the right fit for your needs, we will do our best to refer you to someone who is. We look forward to hearing from you!

Master Task Order

The State of Colorado has a Master Task Order (MTO) with the Colorado Lab that allows governmental entities (including school districts and local governments) to contract with the Colorado Lab without having to bid the work out. This MTO was issued following a competitive bid process for research and evaluation services.

 

Contact us with questions about how to activate this procurement method Read more about our projects Explore how we support partners in meeting their evidence-based decision-making needs Learn how our evidence-building hubs decrease administrative burden on government partners and build connections across projects Discover how your organization might benefit from LINC, which securely connects data across systems to inform decision making Start a conversation about how we can help your organization build evidence