Early Childhood Development

In 2021, the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (OEC) launched the nation's first Parent Cabinet. This influential team of parents and community leaders is collaborating on the design of (and will influence) policies that impact children and families across the state. In this next phase, Third Sector will support OEC and its Parent Cabinet members by analyzing the effectiveness of systems, mapping critical internal and external communications processes necessary to establish an effective feedback function, and instituting a robust governance timeline and framework to ensure that current organizational efforts and leadership expertise are sustained beyond the inaugural years of the Parent Cabinet.

Third Sector led the design process for Massachusetts Department of Early Care and Education’s Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant, a monthly payment to providers to stabilize operations as a result of COVID-19 disruptions. Technical assistance included stakeholder engagement, designing a workforce bonus and restructured, equitable funding formula, which stabilized the programs and  helped keep child care accessible to all Massachusetts families no matter their race, background, or circumstance.

Third Sector worked with the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families to implement Performance-Based Contracting standards across the agency's more than 1,200 contracts to improve services for clients and achieve improved outcomes for outcomes for children and families.

Third Sector worked with a cohort of states (Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina) to provide outcomes-oriented technical assistance to enhance and align each state’s programs, policies, and systems to better support young parents and families. Learn more

In 2018, Third Sector partnered with six state and local government agencies with the goal of demonstrating how agencies could align social services for parents and social services for children to generate better outcomes using strategies such as innovative contracts and data-sharing agreements.

Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) partnered with Third Sector, Sunnyvale School District, and SRI International to explore outcomes contracting as a means to expand access to and enhance the quality of preschool services available to low-income children in the County. During the engagement, Third Sector worked with these partners and other local stakeholders to develop recommendations to improve priority outcomes including academic achievement and social emotional development.

The Learn-to-Earn (LTE) Initiative is a large-scale interagency workgroup that was launched to improve coordination across state agencies and ultimately support individuals and families received public assistance move towards a path to self-sufficiency. The initiative focuses on five public assistance programs - the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, State-Aid Public Housing, Temporary Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and subsidized child care. While the programs serve many of the same clients, misaligned eligibility requirements and structural disincentives to work limit agencies’ abilities to serve the whole person or family. Third Sector supported the initiative’s efforts to leverage administrative data to define statewide education, employment, and income outcomes and improve the agencies’ abilities to match individuals and families with the right mix of supports through the development of data use license agreements.

DEL, Thrive, and Third Sector completed a feasibility study to determine whether Pay for Success could help improve life outcomes for Washington's high-risk families through quality home visiting services funded by the Home Visiting Services Account (HVSA). Given there are more families eligible for home visiting programs than are currently served, DEL was interested in exploring strategies for expanding financial support through Pay for Success. Third Sector conducted a feasibility analysis on five home visiting programs funded by HVSA. Results of the assessment were that a performance-based approach to HVSA expansion would necessitate data improvements to enable DEL, Thrive, and HVSA service providers to better identify and serve high-risk families in Washington and improve their health and educational outcomes. — This project closed in 2016.

Third Sector, in partnership with Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), helped the Washington State Department of Early Learning (DEL) to improve early education and well-being outcomes for children and families served by two home visiting programs and an early support program for infants and toddlers at risk of development delays. The agency realized through a Pay for Success feasibility assessment with Third Sector in 2015 that program data is not linked with administrative datasets to allow DEL to understand certain priority outcomes, therefore the agency was interested in receiving technical assistance from Stanford to access and analyze data held externally. Third Sector led efforts to leverage data insights for selection of outcomes and metrics to build performance-based contracts. DEL joins Santa Cruz County’s Human Services Department and San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency in Third Sector and CPI's Social Innovation Fund Administrative Data Pilot cohort, which will also include a Learning Community designed to facilitate cross-site collaboration and technical/process trainings around data analysis and deployment.

Mecklenburg County partnered with Third Sector, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to conduct a Feasibility Study to determine whether and how Pay for Success can be leveraged to enhance pre-kindergarten and early elementary programming for low-income children. Through the Feasibility Study, Third Sector worked with local stakeholders to develop recommendations to improve priority outcomes include academic achievement, social emotional development, and attendance.

The Children's Services Council of Broward County, FL (CSC Broward) has a long history of partnering with local funders and providers to track and incentivize priority outcomes for children and families that align to the Broward County Children’s Strategic Plan. In order to apply a racial equity lens to their work and continue to improve opportunities and results for all Broward children, CSC Broward piloted new processes for engaging providers and program participants as co-researchers in selecting and measuring program outcomes, shaping program design, and identifying systems-level barriers to remove. CSC Broward piloted these efforts with the Family Strengthening and Mothers Overcoming Maternal Stress (MOMS) programs, which provide child abuse and neglect prevention services. Third Sector supported CSC Broward’s creation of systems for ongoing provider management and frontline staff engagement to complement its existing data-driven approaches that inform funding and procurement decisions. Third Sector also supported the inclusion of additional “learning outcomes” (customized, provider-proposed metrics) in the 2019 re-procurement of these services.

In North Carolina, the Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) sought to improve outcomes for vulnerable families across the state. NCDHHS is a large agency and funds a range of services. Two priority areas the state worked to improve outcomes for are early childhood and the opioid epidemic. To identify opportunities to improve outcomes at scale, NCDHHS decided to focus these efforts in Guilford County which has already laid the groundwork for improving early childhood outcomes. NCDHHS had an opportunity to learn more about what program models are working to improve 2Gen outcomes through an outcomes-oriented demonstration project in Guilford County. Third Sector worked with Guilford County partners to support the development of this demonstration project, which focuses on improving 2Gen outcomes for pregnant women and children affected by substance use. At the same time, Third Sector also worked closely with NCDHHS to develop an agency-wide vision for outcomes-orientation and identify ways to scale the work being done in Guilford County to improve outcomes statewide.  

Third Sector worked with Iowa's Department of Human Rights to move its Family Development and Self Sufficiency program towards an outcomes orientation. Third Sector conducted work to incorporate family voice into 2-Gen related program changes and to rethink how different TANF systems interact in order to better serve families.

The Office of Early Childhood (OEC) administers state and federally-funded childcare for 30,000+ low-income families in the state of Connecticut. The establishment of  the OEC in 2013 united staff and funding from five unique state agencies, naturally creating silos in program delivery. Third Sector has partnered with the Early Care and Education Division of the OEC to assess opportunities to further integrate funding and embed outcomes-orientation across its program starting with Care for Kids, its statewide child care subsidy program. The OEC is working with government agencies, community organizations, and providers through the development and implementation of its three-year Child Care Development Fund Plan to lead collaborative initiatives. These efforts are designed to increase access to high quality care and improve child and family outcomes, including but not limited to improved referral pathways for housing insecure families, expansion of allowable employment and education activities for families on transitional assistance for needy families (TANF), and grants and contracts to expand infant and toddler care.

Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) administers critical resources and supports to thousands of Coloradans who struggle to afford basic living necessities. Many of these individuals also face steep barriers in obtaining the skills, training, and employment opportunities needed to achieve long-term self sufficiency and economic stability. Third Sector partnered with CDHS to incorporate outcomes-oriented contracting principles within the Colorado Works Subsidized Training and Employment Program (CW STEP). Third Sector worked with CDHS and its partners to embed a focus on outcomes and financial incentives into the CW STEP contract and apply lessons learned across other contracts in the agency, with the goal of further enhancing the CDHS' existing culture of performance management and measurably improving long-term outcomes of parents, children, and families served.

Cuyahoga County partnered with Third Sector and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) to conduct a Feasibility Assessment to inform how Pay for Success can be used to sustain and expand their Universal Prekindergarten Program (UPK), which enhances the quality of and access to existing pre-kindergarten slots in public and community settings. Through the Feasibility Assessment, Third Sector engaged state and local stakeholders to identify priority early care and education outcomes, understand the education funding landscape, and identify ways to strengthen and expand community partnerships.

Third Sector worked with Friends of the Children (FOTC) to conduct PFS feasibility to scale up its national evidence-based intervention in Oregon for youth identified at age 5 as “high risk” or already experiencing poor academic and social well-being outcomes. — This project closed in 2015.

The Center for Evidence-Based Policy at the Oregon Health and Science University received technical assistance to advance an early childhood foster care avoidance PFS project for between two to four geographically diverse Oregon communities with high foster care entry rates. The Center had agreed to take on a lead coordinator role with Third Sector’s two other Oregon awardees. — This project closed in 2016.

Third Sector led a feasibility assessment, in partnership with the Children and Families Commission of Orange County (Commission) and other partners, to explore the viability of using PFS to increase the financial sustainability of the Bridges Network. The Bridges Network provides screening and services related to home visiting and outcomes-based funding could provide an opportunity to sustain and improve these services that are critical to the health of infants and mothers in Orange County. — This project closed in 2016.

Third Sector is worked with Friends of the Children (FOTC) to conduct PFS feasibility to scale up its national evidence-based intervention in Oregon for youth identified at age 5 as “high risk” or already experiencing poor academic and social well-being outcomes. — This project closed in 2016.

The State of Nevada, Clark County and the City of Las Vegas received assistance from both the Harvard Kennedy School Social Impact Bond Technical Assistance Lab (HKS SIB Lab) and Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc. to explore the use of Pay for Success in creating innovative strategies to improve social outcomes in early childhood education. Specifically, the three jurisdictions engaged in a feasibility study that explored how an early childhood education PFS project can increase outcomes such as kindergarten readiness and third grade literacy as well as reduce public school special education and remedial education expenditures. The PFS project targeted Southern Nevada and was a part of Nevada’s ongoing efforts to improve early childhood education opportunities state-wide. The collaborative feasibility process between the HKS SIB Lab and Third Sector Capital Partners will focus on four main areas: (1) evaluation of whether or not proposed interventions produce the desired outcomes, (2) cost-benefit analysis of proposed interventions, (3) design of potential PFS payment structures and outreach to potential investors, and (4) assessment of the most rigorous evaluation strategies that can be used to measure the initiative’s outcomes. The State of Nevada is the only Social Innovation Fund Subgrantee leading an innovative partnership between state, county and city government to address PFS contracting and savings analysis for early childhood education interventions, which has the potential to serve as a model nation-wide.

Third Sector worked with the United Way of the Bay Area on assessing PFS readiness of its programming, specifically in the workforce development sector. This feasibility work developed PFS value propositions for promoting financial self-sufficiency and analyzed projected impact, necessary fundraising, and the economics of various projects for stakeholders. — This project closed in 2016.

Third Sector Capital Partners worked with Austin/Travis County, TX, with leadership from the Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department, to focus on determining the feasibility of PFS for reducing teen pregnancies among Hispanic youth and improving birth outcomes among African Americans. The geography served was the City of Austin and Travis County, TX. Measurable outcomes we anticipated on achieving with this engagement included clearly defined target population(s) and analysis of available administrative data. In addition, the engagement conducted an intervention assessment and preliminary evaluability assessment to determine which issue area would have the best viability for PFS. The intervention assessment focused on the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) teen pregnancy prevention program Maternal Infant Outreach Program (MIOP). — This project closed in 2016.

The State of Illinois awarded one PFS contract to increase support for at-risk youth dually involved in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems in Illinois. The Conscience Community Network, with One Hope United as lead agency, coordinated a continuum of evidence-based practices to reduce utilization of institutional care for these dually involved youth. The project aimed to improve placement outcomes, reduce re-arrests, and improve child well-being and transitions to adulthood. Third Sector’s work included arranging funding, leading stakeholder negotiations, project construction, and economic modeling. Illinois is the first state to implement Pay for Success to improve child welfare outcomes, as well as the first to partner with a network of community providers for service delivery. The Conscience Community Network is a collaborative of seven child welfare agencies with deep ties to the Illinois community and over 741 years of experience serving youth in Illinois: Lawrence Hall Youth Services, Maryville Academy, OMNI Youth Services, One Hope United, SGA Youth & Family Services, UCAN and Youth Outreach Services.

With support from the James Irvine Foundation and Nonprofit Finance Fund’s California Pay for Success Initiative, Third Sector partnered with the City and County of San Francisco Office of Civic Innovation to explore the possibility of PFS projects in three impact areas: maternal and infant health, at-risk transitional-aged youth and homeless families.

Two of California’s largest First 5 Commissions – First 5 LA and the Children and Families Commission of Orange County – jointly explored the feasibility of using PFS contracting to support their maternal and child health home visitation programs, Welcome Baby and the Bridges Maternal Child Health Network. Third Sector conducted feasibility studies with the two Commissions with support from the James Irvine Foundation and Nonprofit Finance Fund’s California Pay for Success Initiative. — This project closed in 2015.