PROJECTS
For almost 20 years, Datalink Partners has provided strategic insights to a wide range of organizations, with projects that are diverse in their scope and content. From developing indicators to track progress in communities to recommending best practices for improving outcomes for homeless children, our projects enable our clients to comprehend, document and track their initiatives. Click here to explore samples of recent projects and reports.
EVALUATION
-
CLIENT: START WELL
Start Well provides Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation (ECMHC) services using an evidence-informed process to support the adults in providing best practices which promote children’s social and emotional development, prevent challenging behaviors, and identify early mental health needs in ECE settings and Expanded Learning programs throughout Orange County. Datalink was subcontracted by Charitable Ventures to support the evaluation, including documenting the successes and challenges of the Start Well model in order to ensure the ability to communicate the results and impacts of these investments, to use the results to drive program planning, and to provide documentation for use in funding opportunities.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Registry is an online database that allows primary health care and other community-based providers to view and enter developmental, behavioral, and adverse childhood experiences (trauma) screening data and share information on referrals and outcomes. Datalink Partners assessed five years of Registry data, which included more than 167,000 screening records. The final report presented information about the demographics of children entered into the Registry, the results from the developmental screenings, referrals provided and connections to service made.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Help Me Grow provides a comprehensive, coordinated county-wide system for early identification, referral and care of children at risk for developmental, behavioral and learning problems from birth through age five. Datalink Partners’ evaluation assessed three years of complex and relational data from Help Me Grow’s database (STAR) and from spreadsheets documenting community and physician outreach efforts to illustrate the successes and challenges of the Help Me Grow model. The evaluation also provided an assessment of the impacts resulting from prior investments in Help Me Grow for the Commission to use in fundraising initiatives. Three-year reports were completed for the years 2013-2015, 2016-2018, and 2019-2021.
-
CLIENT: UNITED WAY OF GREATER LOS ANGELES
The Los Angeles Regional Coalition for Linked Learning (LARCLL) is a coalition of 10 lead agencies and more than 200 members from over 60 organizations in Los Angeles County. The goal of LARCLL is to increase post-secondary completions for Linked Learning students. Datalink Partners conducted an evaluation of LARCLL, documenting outcomes, successes and barriers of the coalition as it planned for longer term sustainability.
-
CLIENT: CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION
The Reproductive Psychiatry eConsult Pilot aims to improve psychiatric care for pregnant women and postpartum women with serious, persistent mental illness who are served by the Los Angeles County Departments of Mental Health, Health Services and Public Health. Datalink Partners’ scope includes development of an evaluation plan, interviews with clinic champions, surveys with participating psychiatrists, data analysis and written reports.
-
CLIENT: CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE FOUNDATION
Subcontracted by Wold & Associates, Datalink Partners evaluated models of collaborative care at three federally qualified health centers in Los Angeles to document whether these models were successful at achieving desired outcomes and to assess whether they could be replicated at other clinics serving underserved perinatal populations.
-
CLIENT: CHILD CARE RESOURCE CENTER (CCRC)
The goal of the License-Exempt Provider Outreach Project was to move license-exempt child-care providers toward becoming licensed and to offer education and support that would increase the quality of child care they provided. Datalink Partners’ evaluation explored and documented the extent to which the project achieved its goals, including documentation of the project’s successes and providing recommendations. The scope of the project included developing an evaluation plan, a literature review, interviews with CCRC staff, surveys and focus groups with project participants, data analysis, a written report and presentations to CCRC staff and stakeholders.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Datalink Partners served as a local evaluator for the CSP3 project, assisting with the development of data collection tools (such as surveys for providers, families and administrators) and ensuring that project goals were met. We also provided the initial evaluation design that was incorporated into the CSP3 funding application.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Orange County’s Learning Link program provides an accessible and creative learning environment to help young children be better prepared for kindergarten and to guide parents in their role as their children’s first teachers. Datalink Partners’ evaluation documented outcomes at Learning Link sites throughout Orange County. Our work included developing a literature review and a logic model, conducting and analyzing interviews with all eighteen Learning Link program administrators, leading focus groups with Learning Link providers and presenting all the data collected by Learning Link in internal reports. Our final report also provided recommendations and best practices for program sustainability and for the replication of the Learning Link model in other locales.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Bridges Maternal Child Health Network is a multi-disciplinary group of Orange County health providers collaborating to improve the health and well-being of pregnant women and of young children up to five years of age. Datalink Partners assisted with the creation of a report on new policies of the Bridges Network, developing two evaluation summaries (a PowerPoint presentation and a paper brief) and a policy brief describing the Network’s collective impact and its working model, including curricula and tools and their achieved outcomes.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Building Blocks for Communication™ (BBC) is a hybrid program that incorporates best practice curricula from “Hanen” and “Language is Key.” Datalink Partners’ report presented the ways BBC curriculum is being used, benefits and barriers of implementation, types of resources needed, parent feedback and recommendations for moving forward with Commission-funded speech and language resources.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The LEAN Start curriculum teaches parents strategies to maximize their children’s health through optimum nutrition and physical activity. DataLink Partners’ evaluation measured the LEAN Start program’s impact on participating families and offered recommendations on how to refine the curriculum and streamline its implementation to become more widely available to Orange County families with preschool-aged children. Our project encompassed designing an evaluation plan as well as every step of its execution, including the development of data collection tools such as before-and-after surveys and focus groups for the providers teaching the curriculum and for the families attending the six-week sessions, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, a written report and presentations.
COMMUNITY INDICATORS
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The EDI is a well-validated population-based indicator of children’s development which is geographically coded according to each child’s home address. Datalink Partners Founder and Principal Limor Zimskind serves as the lead EDI implementer for the First 5 Orange County. In 2007, she assisted with the EDI’s initial implementation and piloting, including development of teacher training materials and focus groups. In 2015, she helped the Commission achieve 100% EDI participation among Orange County public schools with kindergarten populations. Her work with the EDI project includes overseeing all aspects of district and school recruitment, kindergarten teacher trainings, and presentation of results to stakeholders and residents in the participating communities. Limor has an integral role in using EDI data to support place-based initiatives, creating maps, reports and presentations and facilitating community/agency engagement.
-
CLIENT: THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION (SUBCONTRACT TO BURKE CONSULTING)
Community Indicator Reports, which are updated annually, provide an assessment of how counties are faring across a range of indicators – from the economy to the environment to the health, education and safety of their diverse populations. The reports provide a context for community dialogue, engagement and action on critical issues. Scope includes working with county agencies to gather and analyze data, developing maps, figures and narrative, and editing of the report.
-
CLIENT: ORANGE COUNTY UNITED WAY
Subcontractor to Parsons Consulting, Inc., which developed the first-ever Orange County Family Financial Stability Index for the Orange County United Way. The Index is a compilation of housing, income and employment data that estimates financial stability at the neighborhood level in Orange County. Developed detailed maps that show neighborhoods (by Census tract) where there is a high concentration of families experiencing financial instability, enabling the United Way to target resources more strategically and to track progress in these areas as the Index is updated. Scope includes developing all maps for project and editing of report.
-
CLIENT: ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY
Datalink Partners has taken part in developing the Orange County Transportation Mobility Indicators Report, which provides a snapshot of selected performance measures for Orange County’s transportation systems. Scope includes gathering and analyzing data, developing maps, figures and narrative and editing of report. Updated reports were developed in 2018 and 2020.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA
Datalink Partners supported the development of the inaugural Indicators report to track progress made towards First 5 LA’s Impact Framework as laid out in their 2020-2028 Strategic Plan.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Commission, in partnership with the Center for the Study of Social Policy and other national early childhood experts, participates in the leadership team for the national Early Childhood Learning and Innovation Network for Communities (EC-LINC). Datalink Partners provided support to the EC-LINC project. We developed and analyzed standardized measures across nine sites in the U.S., including Orange County.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
In partnership with the Health Care Agency of Orange County and the First 5 Orange County, Datalink Partners identified and developed indicators for social determinants of health in Orange County by analyzing local social, economic and environmental factors that impact health.
NEEDS ASSESSMENT
-
CLIENT: CAUSE IMPACT
Developed online App using ArcGIS Experience, which presented maps and data on demographics, workforce resources and needs in Ventura County. App guides the reader through the data, highlighting findings, actionable insights, and opportunities. The ArcGIS Experience App supports WDBVC in better making decisions about where they expand services, provide services in Spanish, increase marketing, and other strategic outreach efforts.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Supported the development of a Systems Change Questionnaire (SCQ), which asks First 5 Orange County partners to rate themselves on whether they have not yet started, are just getting started, are making progress, or are well on their way towards a series of aspirational statements. Datalink Partners analyzes and develops reports that tracks progress made on the SCQ over time.
-
CLIENT: DAIRY COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA
Datalink Partners worked with the Dairy Council of California to develop a logic model for the organization as well as the data collection process and tools needed to track progress on their logic model.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 MONTEREY COUNTY (SUBCONTRACTOR TO FOCALI CONSULTING)
Datalink Partners was part of a team that conducted an environmental scan for Monterey County to assist in evaluating existing levels of developmental screening practices within the County. Scope of project included development of interview protocols, key stakeholder interviews, research and development of literature review and assistance with compiling report to evaluate developmental screening practices in Monterey County and offer recommendations.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA
As a subcontractor to Focali Consulting, Datalink Partners conducted a scan of the early identification and intervention system in Los Angeles County, with an emphasis on developmental screening and referrals to services. The purpose of the scan was to inform planning efforts within LA County supported by First 5 LA with the goal of increasing the effectiveness and responsiveness of developmental screening and early intervention programs across health, mental health and substance abuse services. The scope of the developmental scan was to gain a broader understanding of the strengths, opportunities, challenges and barriers that exist within the early childhood developmental services system in LA County. Methodology included literature review, key stakeholder interviews and countywide focus groups.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 VENTURA COUNTY
PACT classes provide accessible and creative learning environments that help young children become better prepared for kindergarten and guides parents in their role as their children’s first teachers. Scope of project included development of research plan, literature review, interviews and focus groups with key staff, and development of report that documents current PACT programs supported by First 5 Ventura County as well as standards and best practices.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
With support from the Institute for Child Success (ICS), Orange County studied the feasibility of using Pay for Success — an innovative financing mechanism — to improve outcomes for Orange County’s youngest children. The feasibility study focused on expanding evidence-based child maltreatment prevention services. Under the guidance of ICS, Datalink Partners assisted the Commission with development of a series of assessment memos, including: cost benefit, expansion plan, impacts to outcomes and an assessment of service provider readiness.
-
CLIENT: JAMBOREE HOUSING CORPORATION
With Focali Consulting, Datalink Partners embarked on a year-long strategic planning effort with Jamboree Housing Corporation to define the organization’s purpose and strategic focus. We also worked to align the work of the organization to achieve a greater, positive impact on the lives of Jamboree residents and communities. The planning process engaged Jamboree staff and board members, and incorporated feedback from Jamboree’s key stakeholders and partners. Scope of project also included an update to the organization’s mission and vision, development of a logic model. The project also established a plan that laid out Jamboree’s strategic focus areas and corresponding goals, objectives and action steps that define how the focus areas will be implemented.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Building Blocks for Communication™ (BBC) is a hybrid program that incorporates best practice curricula from “Hanen” and “Language is Key.” Datalink Partners’ report presented the ways BBC curriculum is being used, benefits and barriers of implementation, types of resources needed, parent feedback and recommendations for moving forward with Commission-funded speech and language resources.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
-
CLIENT: ORANGE COUNTY UNITED WAY
With Margolis Consulting, supported development of strategic plan to define the organization’s strategic focus for 2025-2030. Scope of project included developing interview and focus group protocols, interviewing key stakeholders, and supporting data collection and analysis.
-
CLIENT: DAIRY COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA
Datalink Partners worked with the Dairy Council of California to develop a logic model for the organization as well as the data collection process and tools needed to track progress on their logic model.
-
CLIENT: BURBANK TEMPLE EMANU EL
Supported development of strategic plan for historic synagogue. Developed areas of focus and metrics.
-
CLIENT: JAMBOREE HOUSING CORPORATION
With Focali Consulting, Datalink Partners embarked on a year-long strategic planning effort with Jamboree Housing Corporation to define the organization’s purpose and strategic focus. We also worked to align the work of the organization to achieve a greater, positive impact on the lives of Jamboree residents and communities. The planning process engaged Jamboree staff and board members, and incorporated feedback from Jamboree’s key stakeholders and partners. Scope of project also included an update to the organization’s mission and vision, development of a logic model. The project also established a plan that laid out Jamboree’s strategic focus areas and corresponding goals, objectives and action steps that define how the focus areas will be implemented.
PROGRAM ACCOUNTABILITY
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Support the Commission in development of its supplemental annual report, which describes the Commission’s investments in the programs it funds and the outcome of those investments. Datalink Partners also documents the Commission’s investments, and helps make recommendations to advance the Commission’s vision of an Orange County in which all young children are healthy and ready to learn.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA
Datalink Partners supported First 5 LA with the implementation of its annual reporting process to California. Scope included reviewing previous annual reports; examining capacity of new data systems as well as current data collecting patterns of existing grantees; providing training and technical assistance to First 5 LA staff and grantees on data collection; and assisting with write-up and communication findings. Scope also included creating and administering the reporting tools, facilitating collection of reporting data from grantees and completing the annual report.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA
First 5 LA contracted with Datalink Partners to support the increased access to and utilization of administrative data collected and stored in iPinwheel and other sources among Quality Start Los Angeles (QSLA) Leaders and Committees. The primary objective of the project was to develop standard reports and other data visualization products, which the QSLA Committees can use in their planning, program monitoring and decision-making efforts.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Provided ongoing input on the annual POMS evaluation framework, including review and feedback on the Commission’s Confidentiality and Data Sharing Protocol, and on data collection tools and questionnaires. Also provided significant assistance with the POMS Annual Report, the Annual Report for First 5 California and the annual Goal Area reports.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Assisted with the development of report, which documented the Commission’s achievements during its first 15 years and helped set the stage for the Commission’s evolving role in serving the Orange County’s young children and families.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The CARES Plus program was a statewide professional development program for early educators designed to improve the quality of early learning programs by focusing on increasing the quality, effectiveness, retention and implementation of best practices by early educators. Limor Zimskind served as lead evaluator. Scope of project included designing the local evaluation and developing all the necessary evaluation tools, assuring data integrity, analyzing data (including workforce data), mapping specific data using ArcGIS and writing up annual reports. These reports assessed the local implementation of CARES Plus, discussed challenges identified and lessons learned and offered recommendations for continuous quality improvement. Limor also provided the initial evaluation design included with the CARES Plus funding application.
-
CLIENT: PRETEND CITY CHILDREN’S MUSEUM
Developed Pretend City’s annual reports. Conducted analyses of the developmental screenings conducted and referrals made by the Museum, developed survey to measure parent engagement and program outcomes, and developed annual reports.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Over the course of four years, Limor Zimskind served as the lead evaluator to the School Readiness Coordinators in Orange County. This includes collecting and analyzing the data necessary to complete an Annual Report, which documented and highlighted the work of coordinators across the 13 diverse participating districts as well as sharing evaluation findings, best practices and challenges.
POLICY
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
HMG-OC provides a comprehensive, countywide system for early identification, referral and care coordination of children at risk for developmental, behavioral and learning problems from birth through age eight. The report detailed HMG-OC’s support for families, providers and the early identification and intervention system overall, and outlined strategic opportunities to ensure HMG-OC can continue to provide critical community resources.
-
CLIENT: CALIFORNIA CHILDREN & FAMILIES FOUNDATION
Readying Our State: How Kindergarten Readiness Inventories Can Benefit California describes why and how California should develop a strategy to collect and use kindergartenreadiness data across the state. By examining the ways Kindergarten Readiness Inventories (KRIs) have been employed by individual California counties and other states, the paper makes the case for their thoughtful use across California, in order to improve school outcomes and direct funding for new and planned early childhood programs.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Health Access Brief focused on how the Commission can support children’s health in Orange County as it relates to health care access, prevention of health issues, health care utilization and special populations. Scope included development of a full report as well as a set of four shorter policy reports on the topics of Health Access, Health Prevention, Health Utilization and Special Populations. The full report identified various indicators that track the health of children and their utilization of available services and recommended strategies for increasing the use of these services, ensuring service continuity and maximizing opportunities to improve child health outcomes.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Orange County Alliance for Community Health Research (OCACHR) was a collaboration of the University of California-Irvine, California State University-Fullerton, First 5 Orange County, Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, and Orange County Health Care Agency. The Alliance focused on identifying the county’s priority health research issues and developing a joint health research agenda and projects to target those health concerns through community and academic partnerships. Limor Zimskind took the lead in coordinating and implementing team-building workshops toward the development of an academic-community partnered health agenda and research projects. Topics for the workshops included:
Child abuse and neglect
Overweight and obesity
Low birth weight
Vision data sharing
Alzheimer’s disease
Perinatal depression
These workshops brought together experts in each given topic to analyze a health issue that needs improvement, identify existing data and gaps, develop potential community-based participatory research projects and consider implications for putting findings into practice.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA (SUBCONTRACTOR TO FOCALI CONSULTING)
First 5 LA created the Community Opportunities Fund (COF) to support the organizational capacity-building and policy advocacy efforts of organizations serving the needs of children from birth through age five and their families throughout Los Angeles County. The COF drew together funding and technical assistance to support organizations that are active within the broad network of providers and efforts in LA County to improve outcomes for children prenatal through five years and their families. Datalink Partners was part of the team that evaluated the efforts of the COF. Work included development, implementation and analysis of grantee profile survey; document review; and interviews with individual grantees that increased understanding of the impact of COF funding on individual grantees, particularly in the focal areas of their capacity-building activities.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Homelessness impacts children in many ways, including the chaos and stress of constant transiency, family separation, dependence on unstable adults (often due to substance abuse and mental health problems) and placement in foster care. This report aimed to provide the client a picture of the current state of homelessness for children ages five and younger. Scope included developing a report, which provided recommendations for documenting and supporting young homeless children and their families in Orange County. The report documented the number of potential children age five and younger living in Orange County (using the OC Homeless Management Information System, CalWORKS, Head Start and Early Head Start, and Point in Time data) and provided policy recommendations and next steps for maintaining and building on the investments that the Commission has already made to improve the outcomes for Orange County’s homeless children.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Physician’s Developmental Screening (PDS) addressed barriers to the expansion of screening during primary care visits by assisting physicians in implementing developmental screenings. Through an Orange County collaboration, 119 providers were trained on using validated screening tools endorsed by the AAP (including PEDS, ASQ, ASQ:SE, M-CHAT). Limor Zimskind conducted an evaluation of the PDS project, which included information on the screenings conducted, screening results, referrals made and findings and recommendations.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The state convened the California Statewide Screening Collaborative (SSC) to promote and deliver effective and well-coordinated health, developmental and early mental health screenings for young children, from birth to age five. Datalink Partners assisted in the development and analysis of tools for the SSC, including surveys, logic model and a developmental surveillance framework.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Conducted an evaluation that focused on four agencies in Orange County that spearheaded efforts to integrate developmental screenings into well-child visits through their participation as pilot sites. Scope of project included a literature review; interviews and focus groups; and development of surveys and tools to track and report out on progress of developmental screenings (including results of screens, types of concerns, referrals made and linkages to services). Final report included lessons learned, challenges and recommendations for expanding implementation of developmental screening efforts in Orange County.
GIS MAPPING
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LA
Developed map and tables that assess the supply and demand of the early care and education (ECE) capacity in Southern California in order to identify areas with higher and lower potential access to child care.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Using ArcGIS, develop maps for the Early Development Index. Maps present children’s developmental data along with risk factors and community assets. Also develop maps that consider change over time and neighborhood risk.
-
CLIENT: DAIRY COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA
Develop index that assesses risk factors as well as Dairy Council’s engagement, by district, in California. Develop maps and present with ArcGIS online.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 LOS ANGELES
Developed dynamic maps using ArcGIS Online that highlight community-based prevention initiatives throughout the LA County region. The goal of this project was to improve coordination and expand collaboration among initiative leaders.
-
CLIENT: CHARITABLE VENTURES OF ORANGE COUNTY
Developed a series of maps that document substantiated child abuse and maltreatment reports and overlaid with FaCT Family Resource Centers as well as other data points.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS) reports data on overweight and obesity in children. Due to budget cuts, however, data reporting ceased after 2011. In order to fill in the gap, the Commission, with its partnership in the Orange County Alliance for Community Health Research, provided funding to PHFE-WIC to analyze and provide Orange County level data on childhood obesity, across the four WIC providers in Orange County. Datalink Partners worked with PHFE-WIC to receive and then map the data. These maps provided important information about the percent of children in Orange County, by zip code, who are at normal weight, at-risk for being overweight, or were overweight.
OTHER
-
CLIENT: CHARITABLE VENTURES OF ORANGE COUNTY
Serve as a Data Evaluation Consultant whose core tasks include participating in quarterly FaCT Evaluation Committee meetings, mapping child abuse data with additional data sources (e.g., EDI), offering recommendations on evaluation plan and development of a FaCT logic model.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
The Commission invests in programs that support the health and well-being of children from birth through age five and their families. In addition, the Commission is a major contributor to job creation and growth in the county. Datalink Partners developed the Workforce Report, which sought to document the types of jobs supported by the Commission and investments it made in Orange County’s workforce.
-
CLIENT: FIRST 5 ORANGE COUNTY
Developed data-collection spreadsheets for Commission initiatives, including the School Readiness Nursing and Early Learning Specialists initiatives. For each data collection spreadsheet, developed data-entry tab using the initiative work plan as a guide, and developed automated reports that update information once data are entered.