Evaluation Answers the Question “Are We There Yet?”
The 100% New Mexico initiative is a data-driven initiative committed to measurable and meaningful change focused on preventing childhood adversity by ensuring vital services for surviving and thriving. With our children’s safety in the balance, we are an initiative that can’t afford to fail.
Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD and Dominic Cappello
April 19, 2022
This article provides a brief overview of the evaluation progress. For a far more detailed article, read “Evaluating 100% (the Important Details Version).”
ARE WE GETTING TO RESULTS?
Our 100% New Mexico initiative is, quite simply, committed to ensuring that all our children’s lives can be trauma-free and all our family households can be healthy, safe, and self-sufficient. To create the family, school, and community environments that provide our infants, children, students, and youth with the best chance at surviving and thriving, we are working to ensure that each county provides timely access to ten vital services. The well-being of every family in New Mexico depends on access to these services.
GETTING TO RESULTS AND OUTCOMES
The focus of our process is on achieving measurable results using our Framework for Change which provides an overview of the various components of our local initiatives. We can evaluate if our projects are increasing access to services as well as improving services in all ten sectors as we work to achieve our vision and goal of 100% of families having access to the vital services that improve health, safety, resilience, school achievement, job readiness, and employment.
OUR CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY
100% New Mexico is enhanced by the robust evaluation provided by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago which focuses on improving the well-being of children and youth, families, and their communities.
Chapin Hall combines rigorous research methods and real-world policy expertise to accelerate the use of data and evidence in policy making and program implementation They have longstanding partnerships with government agencies, nonprofits, and philanthropic organizations which are at the heart of their approach.
Please visit our Evaluating Progress page to review our latest initiative evaluation reports.
Note: We are grateful for the input of our colleague Eric Martin, Managing Director at Adaptive Change Advisors and author of Your Leadership Moment, for his contribution to this article. We also are grateful for the insights of the evaluation team at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.
Mission: The 100% New Mexico initiative is dedicated to ensuring that 100% of families can access ten vital services crucial for their overall health, resilience, and success. This university-sponsored endeavor necessitates the local implementation of evidence-based strategies encompassing both community and school-based service hubs, aiming to prevent the most pressing and costly public health and safety challenges, including adverse social determinants of health and adverse childhood experiences.
Dr. Katherine Ortega Courtney
Katherine Ortega Courtney, PhD. is a changemaker, psychologist, author, and life coach. Her work in child welfare advocacy has instilled change in data-driven trauma prevention in states across the country. She has worked in policy and research and has led community initiatives through her work at the Santa Fe Community Foundation and the New Mexico Early Childhood Development Partnership. As a psychologist and life coach, she coaches individuals and organizations on interrupting the cycles of trauma, addressing the burnout rate in government jobs and child welfare, and providing the tools and skills to achieve the work-life balance that will trickle down to better outcomes in prevention. Her doctorate work at Texas Christian University was in experimental psychology focused on substance abuse treatment and prevention.
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Dominic Cappello
Cappello is a New York Times bestselling author and TEDx Conference curator with decades of experience advocating for health, safety and education. He has a Master of Arts in Liberal studies with an emphasis on Language and Communication from Regis University. He worked for the New Mexico Department of Health Epidemiology and Response Division and the New Mexico Child Protective Services Research, Assessment and Data Bureau, where he co-developed the Data Leader for Child Welfare program, which he implemented in New York City, Connecticut and New Mexico.
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The 100% New Mexico initiative is a program of the Anna, Age Eight Institute at New Mexico State University, College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service. Contact: annaageeight@nmsu.edu or visit annaageeight.nmsu.edu to learn more.
