Funded by the Commonwealth Children’s Fund, this project provides embedded evaluation and technical assistance (TA) to grantees of the Bright Beginnings Breakthrough (B³) Fund as they implement bold, innovative solutions to longstanding challenges in early care and education (ECE).
MEF Associates is serving as the project’s evaluation and storytelling partner, supporting grantees through a three-phase approach:
- Accelerator Phase: MEF will help candidate grantees articulate their vision through a comprehensive theory of change. MEF is supporting grantees by creating templates, offering workshops, and delivering one-on-one support.
- Implementation Phase: MEF will provide individualized TA, facilitate continuous quality improvement, and manage a grantee tracking system to streamline data collection and reporting. These activities are designed to minimize burden while embedding longitudinal data collection into grantee interactions.
- Storytelling Phase: MEF will synthesize insights into compelling products—including case studies, a synthesis report, and optional multimedia deliverables. These products aim to amplify lessons learned and inform broader systems change, reaching audiences such as policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.
Throughout this work, MEF’s approach will be grounded in the Empowerment Evaluation Framework (Fetterman, 1994), which aims to energize those implementing program activities, based on the assumption that their ownership and self-determination will lead to better insights and more effective reform. Our approach also draws inspiration from the Developmental Evaluation Framework, which encourages and prioritizes innovation (Patton, 2011).