Evaluation of the First 5 Alliance for Regional Learning and Results

The Southern California Alliance for Learning and Regional Results (SCALAR) is a consortium of eight First 5 Commissions on Children and Families (pursuant to California legislation funding programs that benefit children in the first five years of life). SCALAR is an alliance of the evaluation branches of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. SCALAR was developed by the Southern California Regional Commissions as part of ongoing regional evaluation meetings. SCALAR seeks to assess and communicate Regional Commissions' collective impact on children ages prenatal through age five and their families in Southern California. SCALAR is committed to demonstrating meaningful evaluation results and to responding to questions from a variety of constituents including policy makers and legislators as well as the alliance, individual commissions and their local constituents.

EMT's approach on this project was grounded in collaboration with stakeholders in all counties through capacity building for data collection and involvement in deliberative sessions to identify current capacity; need, policy and outcome priorities; current resource allocations and service profiles; perceived need for improvement; expectations of SCALAR initiatives and benefits; and the parameters of feasible uniformity in data collection and methodology across counties.

For additional information, please contact EMT at (916) 983-6680 or email us at info@emt.org.