Getting It Right vs. Getting It Seen

A group out of New Haven, CT called Innovations for Poverty Action is evaluating anti-poverty programs around the globe to determine what works and what doesn’t. In their words:

Innovations for Poverty Action applies rigorous research techniques to test and develop solutions to real-world problems faced by the poor in developing countries.

Great. The anti-poverty world (whether we’re talking domestic or international poverty) needs as much information as it can get about what works and what doesn’t. And their roster of researchers is impressive enough that I trust their findings.

There are quite a few of these sorts of initiatives going on right now. I can name four off the top of my head, without even resorting to Google: MDRC (originally the Manpower Development Research Corporation), Mathematica Policy Research, the Center for What Works, and Edutopia.

It seems to me that the challenge before us has shifted. Access to skilled evaluators has been greatly expanded, as has awareness by funders that they have to start including evaluation costs in their grantmaking. It’s no longer about whether we should, how to, or who can evaluate promising programs. The problem is diffusing that information and enabling replication of successful models.

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Imagination Joined to Common Purpose

Sorry for the quiet this week. Offices were closed Monday and Tuesday, in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Inauguration Day. Lots to catch up on after the two-day holiday.

CAP had a watch party for the inauguration, generously hosted by Union Public Schools at their Multipurpose Activity Center. It was a great group of people to share the historic moment with – otherwise I would’ve been holed up on the couch watching by myself.

There was a phrase in the address that really struck home for me:

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions – who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.”

“Imagination joined to common purpose.” I think that’s a pretty apt description of what Tulsa Initiative is about – reconceiving the problem of intergenerational poverty, by focusing on both the parent and child’s generation; applying dual generation and other leading-edge strategies to move beyond old and even current solutions; and seeking out others to join us in a “common purpose” of improving the economic mobility of low income children.

On a personal note, it’s hard to keep my imagination joined to a shared and higher purpose when the two seem to be in tension. Creativity feels frivolous when the demands of the job – the common purpose I’m trying to serve – consume all my energy. “Imagining” isn’t in the job description. But it doesn’t have to be – imagination is every bit as crucial to completing the task as critical thinking, quantitative analysis, or interpersonal communication.

On the glass of our second floor conference room, someone scrawled the question “What inspires you?”

“Imagination joined to common purpose.”

Image used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user oppositeofsuper.

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