Data-Driven Decision Making: Documenting Program Progress and Success.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) sponsored a site exchange series during late spring and summer 2009. During these two- to three-day exchanges, a "host" grantee--working with OFA's technical assistance team --designed a site visit and learning session for a small group of visiting grantees. Site exchanges focused on different types of community-based partnerships that Healthy Marriage grantees have formed to better engage various high-priority populations such as couples, youth and young adults, and low-income families. This report (the final of 3 in the series) summarizes how grantees have integrated data into daily operations and how program evaluation has been used to document program implementation and outcomes. The report focuses primarily on a theme that has emerged across site exchanges as well as other interactions with grantees; the importance of using data for organizational decision making and documenting a program's progress and success. One of the site exchanges focused specifically on how grantees can use data for organizational decision making and is presented as a case study in the report. (Author abstract modified)