Evaluating Colorado’s Essentials for Childhood Project through a Collective Impact Lens

Abstract

This case study examines the development of the Colorado Essentials for Childhood project, a collective impact effort to prevent child maltreatment, over a five-year period (September 2013–August 2018). We conducted semi-structured key informant interviews with 26 project stakeholders to understand how the project’s priorities evolved, along with the challenges it enountered and the success it achieved. Interviewees included members of the Leadership Action Team, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representatives, and staff employed by the project during its entire history. Enabling authors to use NVivo 12 to organize and code interview transcripts, a transcription service transcribed each recorded interview. This paper summarizes the Colorado experience in the context of the five conditions for collective impact success (a common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and backbone support organizations) with the intent of informing other similar efforts. The review of this evaluation offers recommendations for future directions and how to overcome similar challenges in implementing a collective impact approach, particularly in a limited resource environment.