Quality Assurance & Evaluation

One of the fundamental lessons of implementation science is the critical importance of accountability—setting clear performance expectations based on measurable results. As such, NWIC’s support to states, communities, and organizations includes a commitment to measurement of implementation drivers, practice quality, and outcomes. Such measurement is critical to overall success, because what gets measured gets managed, and what gets managed gets done.

Like Wraparound, creating a sustainable accountability system is an individualized process, and it works best when it meets the unique needs of the implementing state, community, or organization. For this reason, all of NWIC's efforts around collecting and using data for decision-making seek to meet the unique information needs of each implementing site--and inform the many decisions that must be made along the way.

At the same time, all Wraparound initiatives supported by NWIC have certain common goals. As such, NWIC will work with all sites to take steps to strengthen their capacity to efficiently collect and effectively use data for certain types of program and system management. While every site starts from a different place, all are expected to, at minimum, make good faith efforts to monitor four broad aspects of Wraparound implementation:

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  • What types of youth and families are enrolling in Wraparound and what are their needs?

  • Is the Wraparound received of high-quality?

  • Are programs supportive and systems adequately hospitable to allow for high-quality Wraparound implementation?

  • Are youth and families experiencing positive outcomes?

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Many sites will have additional needs that fall outside these questions, and we will partner creatively to meet these needs as well.

Working with NWIC’s Wraparound Evaluation Technical Assistance Specialist, you can expect to assess current information needs and capabilities to enhance current or create new systems for collecting, reporting, and utilizing data.. The ultimate goal is to create a sustainable plan that will work on an ongoing basis for the local Wraparound implementation effort and substantially contribute to quality improvement efforts and policy and system development.