Pictured above: The Colorado Lab’s evaluation team on lived experience of prenatal substance use (L to R): Dr. Courtney Everson, Sr. Project Director, Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab; Ashley Miller, Peer Researcher; Sarah Brown, Peer Researcher. Not pictured: Jo Beletic, Staff Researcher, Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab; Alena Clark, External Research Partner. A new findings […]
Good Government
Growing Capacity to Achieve the Governor’s Wildly Important Goals
The Colorado Lab is working with Governor Polis’s Office of Operations to build agency capacity to achieve the administration’s Wildly Important Goals (WIGs). The WIGs, identified through an annual strategic planning process, help state leaders focus on and track progress toward selected priority efforts. Drs. Kristin Klopfenstein and Courtney Everson are partnering with state agencies […]
Colorado Lab Presents at CHoSEN Forum
We were pleased to present at the spring forum for the Colorado Hospitals Substance Exposed Newborn (CHoSEN) Quality Improvement Collaborative. The forum focused on evidence-based practices in caring for families affected by prenatal substance use and opportunities for innovation in collaborative care. Dr. Courtney Everson, Senior Project Director for the Colorado Lab, co-presented a plenary session entitled Piloting […]
Plans of Safe Care Pilot: Visit to San Luis Valley
Pictured above: Plans of Safe Care Pilot Team members (Illuminate Colorado, the Colorado Lab, and the Kempe Center) meet with partners from the San Luis Valley Area Health Education Center, the Rural Recovery Network, and Valley-Wide Health providers at Sierra Blanca Medical Center.) Efforts are underway in the San Luis Valley (SLV) to develop a […]
EBDM: Philanthropy Learning Community
The Colorado Lab is working with Philanthropy Colorado and state philanthropic leaders to determine how funders can best support their nonprofit grantee partners in collecting and learning from data. Foundation leaders have been invited to participate in monthly Community of Practice learning sessions through early 2025. Natalie Portman-Marsh of NPM Consulting, LLC will facilitate the […]
Updated Glossary! Evidence-Based Decision Making
New terms have been added to the Evidence-Based Decision Making (EBDM) Glossary. This resource provides terms that promote a shared understanding of key EBDM concepts. EBDM is the intersection of the best available research evidence, decision-makers’ expertise, and community needs and implementation context. EBDM recognizes that research evidence is not the only contributing factor to […]
Evidence-Based Decision Making: Cue Cards Equip Legislators to Advance EBDM
Colorado policymakers have two new resources for use during the legislative session. “Cue cards”’ were developed by the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab, providing legislators with an easy to use set of questions to promote dialogue and advance evidence-based decision making (EBDM). During the first two weeks of the legislative session, the SMART Act Hearing […]
Evidence-Based Decision-Making: New Evidence-Based Decision-Making Strategy Report
We’re pleased to share the new report, Promoting Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Colorado State Government: From Vision to Implementation and an Executive Summary. The report outlines four strategic goals (image below) to guide implementation of the EBDM vision over a span of five years. The strategy for EBDM is organized around both the culture we are […]
Evidence-Based Decision Making: SMART Act Cue Card for Legislators
Each January, SMART Act hearings provide a key opportunity to demonstrate the high value Colorado places on EBDM in state government. The tenets of EBDM become readily apparent when legislators ask agency leadership targeted questions about their performance management and process improvement efforts and how evidence informs their ongoing work. To support this process, the […]
Evidence Portfolio Process for Budget & Policy Decisions
A newly created evidence portfolio process supports the consistent application of Evidence-Based Decision-Making (EBDM) by state agencies during budget and policy decision-making. State agencies can use this tool to apply evidence to drive outcomes, leverage data to inform learning and action, and build evidence on what works and for whom, while promoting innovation. As described […]