Unlocking Real-Time Evidence for Practitioners

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First Place for Youth helps youth who have aged out of the child welfare system build the skills they need to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency and responsible adulthood. A few years ago, the organization realized that their administrative data systems, while extensive, generated little data that could be used by front-line practitioners as they worked directly with youth and families. 

To address this limitation, First Place for Youth partnered with BCT Partners, an evaluation and data science firm, to institute “precision analytics,” which uses machine learning algorithms to build predictive, prescriptive, and evaluation models that can generate actionable evidence, on demand. The goal of this process is to understand what has worked for specific participant populations in the past and to translate those findings into actionable information for front-line staff so that they can connect each youth with the services and supports that are most likely to lead to success. 

In this interactive conversation, Erika and Pete will discuss why they chose this unique approach to evidence building, how they designed and operationalized a practitioner-centered process, and what challenges they encountered.

Generating Actionable Evidence for Practitioners

To learn more, check out the Actionable Evidence case study on First Place for Youth and BCT Partners.

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