COO 2019-2020 Evaluation Report and Qualitative Findings
In the 2019-2020 COO Evaluation Report report, we looked to answer the overarching evaluation question:
“In what ways have COO’s cross-cutting strategies strengthened community connections and increased equity in housing, health, and economic conditions in King County?”
This evaluation report provides an overview of progress for Communities of Opportunity (COO) from January 2019 through June 2020. Data included are from the following sources:
2019 end-of-year and 2020 mid-year reporting from partners in COO’s nine Place-Based & Cultural Community (PBCC) partnerships
2019 end-of-year reporting from 24 Systems & Policy Change (SP) partners
Twenty-five key informant interviews conducted this summer with partners from PBCCs and Governance Group
Surveys with participants from the CREST Learning Circle cohort
Participants in the 2019 Storytelling Workshop.
We examined the context in which activities took place, as illustrated through COO’s headline indicators, and describe what COO partners did in 2019 through mid-2020, including a discussion of the impact of COVID-19 on partner activities, and the short-term outcomes of COO activities. Some major findings of COO’s role in changes/COO Impact as reported by COO community partners are that investments:
Created more opportunities for community connection
Elevate opportunities for their communities through partnership activities and systems/policy change efforts
Influenced changes in business, employment, and/or training opportunities for communities of color, particularly for immigrants
Increased opportunities for housing through development and anti-displacement activities
Increased awareness and access to mental health resources
Influenced priorities through data collection activities like community needs assessments
Partnerships, critical connections contributed to expanding reach and improved coordination of activities for COVID response
From COO community partners:
“I’ve seen more coalition-ing particularly around specific issues than before… There are different people who previously were not at the table together, are now at the table together…. COO has contributed to people’s ability to come together to the same table, see common issues…”
“Our COO-funded projects demonstrated our organization’s ability to do coalition work that brings critical resources to our communities and promotes policy and systems change. Our successes have allowed us to receive additional funding to do community engagement work that promotes equitable development.”
Gregory Davis, Managing Director of the Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC) speaks at the 2019 Equitable Development Summit. Photo by Sharon Chang.
COO Facilitating Factors that helped to support positive changes in the results areas of housing, health, community connection and economic opportunity, as reported by our community partners, included:
COO model of investing in community partnership and leadership, community-driven solutions
Flexible, long-term funding
Having time, resources to develop trust and shared vision
Ability to partner with others with complementary skills
Importance of working collectively, collaboratively with community partners and across sectors
Ability to leverage successes, partner resources, COO affiliation
Supportive program staff
Supportive contracting model
All of the above contributed to ability for meaningful responses to the impacts COVID-19 in community.