PROJECT NARRATIVE I. Strength of IPC’s Demonstrated Performance Delta Health Alliance (DHA) is a non-profit, community-based organization that serves 17 rural counties of the “Mississippi Delta” in northwest Mississippi, which is one of the historically poorest, underserved regions of the United States. After generations of failing academics, poor health outcomes, and struggling economies, many residents of the Mississippi Delta feel trapped in a system that breeds disparities, impoverishment and hopelessness. However, some distressed communities of the Delta are realizing significant improvement and growth by replicating and building upon the powerful success of other programs (e.g. The Harlem Children’s Zone and DHA’s Delta Health Initiative) and leveraging the singular drive and dedication of their local residents, educators, city leaders, small business owners, and non-profit advocates. The Indianola Promise Community (IPC) represents a tightly knit consortium of these people, absolutely dedicated in their resolve to improve outcomes for area youth and to create a sustainable transformation of rural schools and communities in Indianola, Mississippi in the heart of Sunflower County, Mississippi. The Indianola Promise Community (IPC) started in 2009 and was selected for funding from the Department of Education Promise Neighborhood in 2012. IPC has achieved remarkable success in the last four years, which has drawn the attention of national audiences as well as generated vital evidence for the Promise Neighborhoods model. “The IPC has given our families, In September 2016 The Urban Institute businesses and residents a sense of hope and belief we can all work published their findings, highlighting IPC in an together to combat the poverty in our community.” article entitled “Passport to Prosperity,” which - Steve Rosenthal, Mayor of Indianola 1 details the challenges overcome and successes won by our IPC program, which worked to align services, schools, childcare centers, and other providers into a continuum of services; building capacity of staff and partners to create a result-driven community. Under the IPC, kindergarten readiness has more than doubled in three years (from 25% to 64%), in addition to our significant improvements in the elementary school STAR math and reading assessments and high school graduation rates. On September 15, 2016, DHA hosted the Vice President and Secretary of Education as they visited IPC to see how a promising coalition of schools and communities have come together to transform rural neighborhoods in one of the most under- resourced areas of the nation. A. IPC’s Ability to Collect, Track, & Report GPRA Data (For details please see Appendix A) IPC uses Social Solutions’ Efforts to Outcomes (ETO) as our longitudinal database alongside the Results Scorecard to track participants from program to program, and to frequently assess each program’s impact on specific sets of participants. DHA has years of After an IPC participant consents to participate, DHA staff experience collecting informed consent of at-risk enrolls them in this regional common data system accessible populations, including by all authorized internal and external partner programs. obtaining informed consents on 93% of Each individual in the ETO system has a unique ID which Indianola’s population, 0 to 18 years old. allows IPC to track consented individuals across programs and over their lifetime. Annual reviews of case files have also demonstrated that zero children enrolled in the program fell through the cracks or otherwise did not receive referrals and access to programs that met their identified needs – every child identified with needs received some level of remediation with the majority accessing multiple programs and services. IPC’s ETO system involves: (1) monitoring individual progress through the use of one-on-one Case 2 Managers; (2) establishing networking connections that connect all elements of the IPC pipeline; and (3) collecting and analyzing individual-level data on children and families in real-time to continually improve existing services and develop new strategies to address needs as they arise. Staff at each partner site has been trained by DHA ETO Administrators to enter demographic, attendance, and assessment data for children participating in partner-provided programs. Our ongoing data capture and analysis has allowed IPC to be continually “listening” to students and their families and assessing the value and impact of different programs from their perspectives, enabling each partner to track and run individualized reports on demographics, efforts, and assessments while also tracking the collective impact when families are enrolled in multiple initiatives. Our extensive experience listening to and working alongside residents of Indianola has resulted in strong community buy-in and engagement with IPC’s pipeline of programs. IPC’s Record of Collecting, Tracking and Reporting GPRA Indicators. IPC has demonstrated an ability to collect, track and report GPRA data on performance indicators since Day 1 of the Promise Neighborhoods implementation grant. Over the 5-year grant period, IPC has distinguished itself from other grantees by “The Secretary shall award extension grants under such section on a competitive consistently delivering all 15 GPRA basis to implementation grantees that have demonstrated the ability to collect, track, indicators, as defined by the Guidance and report longitudinal data on performance indicators established by the Document, to the Department of Education Department and required to be reported on annually” – Federal Registrar, Extension through the annual ad-hoc report. For Grants Funding Opportunity for FY 2011 and FY 2012 Promise Neighborhoods example, while the majority of other Implementation Grantees, April 19, 2018 grantees failed to complete the administration of a random-sample neighborhood survey until later years of the grant program, IPC successfully completed the administration and reporting of a random-sample neighborhood 3 survey during Year 1 of our program. Additionally, IPC continued to administer the neighborhood survey every year of the grant – even when the requirement was only for years 1, 3 and 5. IPC leadership know, depend on and adhere to the philosophy that in order for there to be a true understanding of the impact of our strategies there has to be a rigorous discipline to community involvement in data collection and reporting, a commitment we have made and honored since Day 1 of the IPC program and will continue if selected for extension support. Our strong commitment to engaging the community for ongoing surveys reinforces our ability to respond promptly to any unanticipated challenges or concerns that our communities may raise. Chart 1 to the right indicates the Chart I: GPRA Collection and Reporting, 2013‐2017 GPRA Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 successful record of the collection and GPRA 1 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes GPRA 2 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes reporting of IPC’s GPRA indicators to GPRA 3 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes the U.S. Department of Education GPRA 4 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes GPRA 5 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes through the Ad hoc report. Blue GPRA 6 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Partial: Partial: Partial: Partial: Partial: Missing Missing Missing Missing Missing indicates that the GPRA was submitted, GPRA 7 Part C Part C Part C Part C Part C GPRA 8 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes per the definition and requirements in GPRA 9 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes GPRA 10 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes the Guidance Document, far surpassing GPRA 11 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes GPRA 12 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes other Promise Neighborhood GPRA GPRA 13 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes GPRA 14 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes collecting and reporting efforts. Yellow GPRA 15 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes that GPRA 7 only was submitted partially due to the inability to collect Part C of that measure. Our dedication to data collection and analysis is not limited to the neighborhood survey or other GPRA indicators – IPC has implemented a formal accountability process (details provided starting on page 42) to ensure that the data is not only being collected in a high-quality, frequent manner, but that the data is used to drive decision-making by all stakeholders. All IPC 4 programs have established goals and performance measures that are collected and reported monthly. The program reports are shared widely – with program, data and leadership staff, including the CEO. Leadership staff review each program’s report and provide direct feedback to program staff. The process encourages program and partner staff to have a deeper understanding of their program’s goals, performance measures, and strategies. While the accountability process lifts up the “bright spots”, its core goal is to identify concerns or issues with fidelity of implementation so that corrective action can be taken quickly, and results can be accelerated. B. Positive and Promising Results of IPC To Date Figure 1. IPC’s Impact to Date on Kindergarten Readiness Kindergarten Readiness - Since its inception in 2009, the Indianola Promise Community and its partners have worked collaboratively to build a pipeline of services from birth to career, striving for positive and promising results during our initial implementation grant, emphasizing getting children ready to learn. The foundation of IPC’s success has been that the earlier children enter the pipeline and can be prepared to learn well, the better their results. Ideally, IPC children enter the pipeline even before their birth through a maternal home visitation 5 program. The system continues to build and support families by providing in-home family service workers, early interventions for children who show signs of delay, monthly book programs, childcare supports and other kindergarten readiness programs. Construction of this early phase of the pipeline began with the Indianola Promise Community Early Education Collaborative (IPCEEC). In 2009, the Delta Health Alliance gave leadership of this initiation of the Indianola Promise Community. The IPCEEC, headquartered in the City of Indianola, is part of the larger and more comprehensive IPC initiative and reflects several programs that support getting children ready to learn.