Listening to Parents, Youth and Teachers: 3 Tools for Community Learning and Engaging

This presentation was given at the Community Indicators Consortium Impact 2013 conference.

As a public funder of children’s programs in Miami-Dade County, Florida, The Children’s Trust uses data tools to better understand the experiences, challenges and needs of our community’s 550,000 children and their families. This presentation will look at three of these tools: a county-wide household survey of children’s health and well-being; Center for Effective Philanthropy’s YouthTruth Survey for middle and high school students to inform and effect change within their schools; and Transforming Early Childhood Community System’s Early Development Instrument completed by teachers of kindergarten students and used as a population measure to holistically address how young children are developing within their communities and their readiness for school.

The household survey is based on questions from national surveys and has been conducted twice (2007 and 2011/12), providing comparative results over time for children by age range, race/ethnicity, and geographic area. YouthTruth survey results are specific to schools and made available by youths’ grade level, race/ethnicity, and more. The EDI results are specific to neighborhoods with the intention of bringing results about young children’s readiness for school across five developmental domains back to their community to address vulnerabilities observed.

Lisa wil describe each of the tools, how they are being used, what we are learning, and potential challenges / remedies for other communities interested in implementing them. A moderator will then summarize and tie ideas together, ending with audience questions.