COO Evaluation

Unlike conventional evaluation approaches that can be top-down or perpetuate inequities, participatory evaluation brings stakeholders and evaluators together to collaboratively develop and implement the evaluation. In alignment with COO’s values of shared power and decision-making, a participatory approach ensures partners, governance group, and staff play an active role throughout the evaluation process.

We are grateful for the participation of the Evaluation Advisory Group members in the guidance of our evaluation work!

Phase 1 Evaluation

Unlike conventional evaluation approaches that can be top-down or perpetuate inequities, participatory evaluation brings stakeholders and evaluators together to collaboratively develop and implement the evaluation. In alignment with COO’s values of shared power and decision-making, a participatory approach ensures partners, governance group, and staff play an active role throughout the evaluation process.

This report summarizes evaluation findings from 2015 through 2021.

Findings revealed that COO’s long-term investments supported agencies, partnerships, and communities across the region to take meaningful actions to reduce inequities in the areas of housing, health, and economic opportunity. This report details the PSE changes made by COO partners, changes that can advance equity and improve the opportunities and lived experiences of communities in King County.

The evaluation also demonstrated how partners successfully leveraged COO resources and relationships to expand the reach and scope of their work. Further, COO’s investment in community power-building supported partners and communities to take aim at addressing root causes of inequities. COO partners mobilized communities, developed community leaders, and built community connections in ways that strengthened the foundation from which they could address the power imbalances that undergird structural inequities.

This report summarizes qualitative and quantitative evaluation findings from 2015 through 2021 to answer the following overarching evaluation question:

In what ways have COO’s cross-cutting strategies strengthened community connections and increased equity in housing, health and economic conditions?

THEORY OF CHANGE

COO aims to increase racial, health, social, and economic equity by implementing three investment strategies: Community Partnerships, Systems and Policy Change, and the Learning Community. Through these investments, COO strives to increase the capacity of COO partners and communities to create policies, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes.

COMMUNITY POWER-BUILDING APPROACH

To achieve COO’s mission, COO supports efforts to build community power, most often by investing in existing power in communities and supporting its growth. This is demonstrated by COO’s community-driven design, the governance of COO by community members, and its ongoing investments in building and strengthening existing power in communities.

Community power is the ability of communities most impacted by inequities to work together to set agendas, shift public discourse, increase opportunities for community ownership, and advance meaningful change.

Community power-building approaches seek to strengthen existing power in the communities that have been historically and systematically disempowered, increasing their capacity to shift power dynamics broadly in ways that increase equity.

COO INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

COO supported a diverse group of new and existing partnerships and projects. COO provided funding and other resources so that partnerships could make new connections and leverage their COO work to secure additional funding, expanding the scope and sustainability of their work. Never intending to be a project’s sole funding source, COO sought to contribute to the confluence of regional resources and efforts to advance racial, social, and economic equity.

HOW HAS COO ADVANCED EQUITY?

COMMUNITY POWER-BUILDING

COO supported partners to strengthen existing power in communities. Partners found the longevity, level, and flexibility of COO’s funding helpful in building this power. Specifically, COO’s multi-year funding at a level high enough to hire staff and flexible enough to cover administrative costs and community power building activities.

COO, mostly through the Learning Community, provided opportunities for partners to expand their capacity and community connections to build power. Since 2018, COO partners developed 451 new partnerships, 1,119 new relationships, and 2,095 new leaders.

HOUSING

COO partners improved housing opportunities for King County residents by increasing access to affordable housing and minimizing displacement of residents, businesses, and cultural communities. COO partners produced PSE changes that increased tenant protections at the state and local level, funding for and development of affordable housing, and access to culturally responsive housing resources.

LEVERAGING FUNDS

COO partners leveraged COO resources and connections to expand the scope and sustainability of their work. They received tens of millions of additional funds to build and sustain the momentum for PSE change. This included funding efforts to develop and expand community development and landownership efforts, provide COVID relief and increase digital access, among others.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT & LAND OWNERSHIP

COO partners increased the involvement of community in developing and stewarding spaces in neighborhoods experiencing high levels of gentrification and displacement. Community Partnerships partners in the Central District, Rainier Valley, and White Center developed properties owned and designed by community.

COO partners across the investment strategies built community capacity and leadership for equitable land development and stewardship. The Learning Community provided many related resources and opportunities, including two Learning Circle cohorts and a Commercial Affordability Pilot.

HEALTH

COO partners improved health opportunities in King County using several strategies, including by increasing access to healthy and culturally relevant foods in schools and communities. Partners also improved access to culturally responsive healthcare. Finally, partners improved community health and safety by making PSE changes related to climate action and police reform.

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

COO partners improved economic opportunities by supporting small businesses and entrepreneurs, increasing worker and debt protections, expanding supports for low-income families, and providing workforce development opportunities, especially for immigrants, refugees, and young people of color.

Takeaways & Opportunities

TAkEAWAYS

Takeaway 1: Investing in community-driven work that spans multiple strategies and communities can support measurable benefits in equity.

Takeaway 2: Long-term investment in community power-building represents a compelling approach to supporting PSE change.

Takeaway 3: The Learning Community, COO’s investment strategy that supports organizations to build capacity and relationships, is an effective model for how funding agencies can support partners beyond providing financial resources.

Takeaway 4: COO supports future advancements in equity by contributing to changes to the regional funding landscape.

CONCLUSION

The evaluation examined COO’s effects on the lived experience of communities related to housing, health, economic opportunities, and community connections. It explored the changes in opportunities, policies, systems, and environmental conditions that resulted from COO’s investment in community power-building across its three strategies: Community Partnerships, Systems and Policy Change, and Learning Community.

The evaluation of COO activities from 2015 - 2021 demonstrated COO’s success in supporting community-driven advances in racial, social, and economic equity. The data illustrate ways that COO partners improved opportunities and lived experiences for many King County residents. The data also show how COO can continue to grow and build on these successes to expand its reach and impact for King County communities moving forward.

COO funders and leaders must also continue to expand the alignment of their internal processes and systems with racial equity principles. The success of an initiative focused on racial, economic, and social equity will necessarily be affected by the degree of equity with which it is administered and governed. Finally, the evaluation revealed that expanding and deepening the connections between COO partners and other funders represents a promising way to expand and deepen the work of COO itself. These lessons will inform the implementation and evaluation of COO as it moves into the next Best Starts for Kids levy funding cycle.