The Skillman Foundation
Since 2006, the Center has been working as the evaluation and learning partner with The Skillman Foundation in Detroit as the Foundation implements its “Good Neighborhoods/Good Schools Initiative.” The ten-year, $500 million Initiative is designed to concentrate Foundation and other leveraged resources in six Detroit neighborhoods with the goal of transforming the neighborhoods and schools into environments where all children are safe, healthy, well educated and prepared for adulthood. This is done by working directly with concerned citizens and a complex web of organizations. The Center is working with the Foundation to refine the initiative plan and to develop and manage a wide-ranging evaluation strategy for this comprehensive, multi-year initiative. The Center’s goal is to promote real-time learning with the Foundation and encourage candid exchange and problem solving about the many challenges inherent in mounting an ambitious community change effort. Indeed, Good Neighborhoods/Good Schools is the largest place-based initiative of its kind in the U.S. today.As part of its role, the Center is also conducting a study of the Foundation’s shift in approach from “Grant Maker” to “Change Maker.” In the initial stages of evaluation, the Center’s work has focused on the development of an evaluation framework, definition of program and community-wide outcome measures, now known as the 2016 Goals, and an assessment of the first five years of planning and “readiness” activities.
Della M. Hughes and Susan P. Curnan, Co-Principal Investigators