The HMG National Center has the unique capacity to inform a national narrative about the efficacy of HMG as a model to support comprehensive early childhood systems. To do so, the National Center must make effective use of data collected from across the network. Two primary strategies inform the work of the National Center by capturing affiliate progress, identifying best practices, and ensuring continuous learning across the network.
Help Me Grow is not a stand-alone program, but rather a system model that utilizes and builds on existing resources in order to develop and enhance a comprehensive approach to early childhood system-building in any given community so that all young children can thrive. Successful implementation of the Help Me Grow model requires communities to identify existing resources, think creatively about how to make the most of existing opportunities, and build a coalition to work collaboratively toward a shared agenda.
Demonstrating the impact of the Help Me Grow system model across the affiliate network is a process that relies on:
- HMG affiliates that conduct local evaluations of the efficacy of HMG on community, child and family level outcomes; and
- HMG National, which uses findings from both local evaluations and assessment of key lessons learned from across the network to inform a national narrative
Shared Measurement
HMG Impact Indicators tell an important story about the reach and impact of HMG on communities, families, and children across the HMG network. HMG as a system is designed to reach families both within and outside of the centralized access point, child health providers, and community partners. The Impact Indicators that HMG affiliates collect and report to National on an annual basis describe the spread and scale of their efforts in reaching key stakeholders.
National Fidelity Assessment
Fidelity is a critical component of any effort to spread and scale a program or system. Fidelity to the model ensures that the core components that are essential to the HMG model are implemented in a standardized way across the affiliate network.
There is a long period of system growth well before a HMG affiliate would be expected to reach full fidelity to the system model, and during that period, there are critical lessons to be learned and small tests of change that could significantly impact the way a particular system develops. As such, an assessment of fidelity for HMG must be broad, and capture the evolution of HMG across the continuum.
Fidelity to the HMG model is measured according to the stages of implementation consistent with the literature: exploration, installation, implementation, and sustainability. Specific criteria are used to guide classification of an affiliate to a particular stage. The HMG National Center leverages the information obtained through an annual Fidelity Assessment to inform decisions about the structure and content for technical assistance offerings, diffuse key innovations to affiliates in appropriate stages of implementation, and over time, evaluate our impact on supporting affiliate implementation of HMG.