Identify ongoing resources: Identifying dedicated resources, such as through a local funder or in collaboration with a public institution, will allow organizations to maintain aligned work and even consider new or broadened approaches to addressing desired systems change. Dedicated resources also allow a partnership to continue its commitment to inclusivity, whether by funding staff time for ongoing community engagement or minimizing the administrative burden on smaller organizations by funding project management.

Clarify and adjust partner roles: As work proceeds, partner organizations may find themselves considering a number of important questions to clarify how partners will continue their shared work. How will the partnership structure change over time? Will additional staff or funds be needed? Who is responsible for ensuring that the work will continue, and how often will this group convene? What are the continuity plans for managing staff and organizational turnover? What additional partners do we need to engage to sustain and improve this work?

Scale solutions and pursue systems change: A key question that partnerships will face in moving forward is how the work itself will proceed, retain community engagement and contribute to larger systems change. When cross-sector solutions have been implemented, partnerships may ask themselves, How do we learn from our past work to improve existing programs, scale effective solutions and support policy development that contributes to needed system change? Tools in the following section, on using evidence and evaluation findings, also can help partners plan to scale their solutions.

Understand the system: Systems mapping, or network mapping, is a visual exercise to identify the individuals and organizations that are key stakeholders within a community and the connections and power dynamics between them, similar to a stakeholder map. These maps help identify the intersection and alignment of key issues within a given geographical area and the factors that influence them. Systems mapping exercises are useful in considering the entry points for seeking systems change to influence policy and funding decisions, because they encourage careful consideration of the power structures in place.

Bring in evidence: Evaluations are a powerful tool to reflect on a program’s progress, influence programmatic and funding decisions, and inform the scaling of successful interventions, as well as policy development and advocacy. Evaluations require careful consideration of an initiative’s intended goals and potential impact and can range in the level of effort, time and budget required. Evaluations may be conducted internally by staff or externally by third parties, depending on staff capacity, funding and the level of objectivity needed for the evaluation.

The subject of an evaluation is an important consideration, because evaluations can focus on improving the implementation of an initiative or on assessing its outcomes. For example, in the case of a cross-sector collaboration, an implementation or process study would assess the effectiveness of the partnership itself to help guide continuous improvement. In contrast, an outcomes evaluation would assess the outcomes in the partnership’s target community and could be used to inform future work or advocacy efforts. 

Effective evaluations require thoughtful planning and execution to ensure that they can meet their intended purpose. An evaluation plan is a useful tool that outlines the research methods, data collection and data analysis required to complete the assessment. In addition to the resources included here, additional guidance on planning, scoping and conducting an evaluation is included in Appendix E, under Resources for Stage 5.

Communicate for policy and systems change: Cross- sector partnerships can leverage anecdotal evidence, program documentation, and evaluation and outcome data to spur policy change and other system-level improvements. When organizations can point to documented examples of proven approaches to service delivery — or to barriers in local systems— they can more effectively advocate systems change and contribute to the development of new policies. Although many organizations may not have the resources for a full-scale evaluation, they still have an opportunity to drive systems change by highlighting compelling stories that demonstrate the necessity of their work. Evidence and data of all kinds can be used to make a powerful case for changes to new or proposed policies and funding decisions. For example, the documented experiences of children and families, as seen in the following case study about Project Hope, proved to be a useful advocacy tool. Even in the absence of a formal process, using the principles of evaluation can be a helpful place to start.

The following evaluation reports offer examples of how housing- and education-focused project evaluations can be documented, summarized and used to develop recommendations for future work or future systems change. Additional examples of evaluations and resources using evaluation data are included in Appendix E, under Resources for Stage 5.