Third Sector Joins Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy to Implement Integrated Performance Systems

Local and state governments collect vast amounts of data in the course of delivering social services to children and their families. Unfortunately, many still struggle to assess program impacts and improve program quality and efficiency because data are rarely connected across agencies, and almost never connected to their contracting decisions. In the absence of outcomes-oriented contracting, states’ delivery of social services lacks a real-time feedback mechanism to inform responsive improvements to achieve program goals and better serve program recipients.

Third Sector Capital Partners (“Third Sector”) recognizes the critical need for data governance, infrastructure, and sharing in order to inform America’s transition to a more performance-driven public sector. We are excited to partner with Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP) at the University of Pennsylvania to offer complementary training on the development of Integrated Data Systems (IDS) infrastructure and outcomes-contracting services, which will jointly increase government’s ability to use data-driven decision-making to improve results for vulnerable populations.

AISP is a leading expert in the development of state and local IDS for policy analysis and program reform. With generous support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, AISP operates a national network of established IDS sites and has developed a training and technical assistance curriculum to support developing sites. In 2016, funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation allowed AISP to publish a series of expert panel reports on best practices related to IDS governance, legal issues, technology, and data standards.

This new partnership between Third Sector and AISP, supported by a 2016 Social Innovation Fund grant, is an opportunity to leverage our joint knowledge and capacity to demonstrate and refine the powerful combination of IDS and outcomes contracting. Third Sector and AISP will address the context-specific data infrastructure and contracting challenges of governments interested in measuring and improving two-generation program outcomes. (i.e., outcomes that foster the wellbeing of both parents and their children).

AISP’s expertise in linking data across individuals within families and across agencies serving multiple family members will be critical to enabling governments to better use this data to redirect resources through outcomes contracts to measurably improve the lives of all generations.

“This partnership will allow communities across the country to develop the data infrastructure that can connect to impactful programs improving the lives of families. AISP is a leader in the development of IDS and we are excited to work with them in order to support the efforts of communities looking to both develop and deploy data through contracting to improve the lives of young children and their families,” explained Caroline Whistler, CEO of Third Sector.