The Hilton Foundation employs formative evaluation to inform its strategic initiatives and at the beginning of 2016, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation launched a second five-year phase in its efforts to end chronic homelessness in Los Angeles County. This is the first report of the second phase of the initiative, and while the strategic approach doubles down on the successful systems change work that has made Los Angeles County’s efforts a model for the nation, the Foundation has defined its goals in a completely new way in Phase II.
Developed by our Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) partners at Abt Associates, the evaluation strives to measure and inform the collective efforts of the Foundation and our partners against the common goal by taking a deep dive into both community progress as well as the Foundation’s role in that progress. Now in Phase II of the Initiative, the Foundation actions are even more intertwined with the broader community; hence the evaluation is structured around measuring countywide progress in ending chronic homelessness, rather than examining a subset of actions specifically tied to Foundation action. Nonetheless, the Foundation is interested in critically examining its direct and indirect contributions and understanding how it can best advance local progress. The evaluation framework depicts the major areas the evaluation team have identified in which stakeholders must focus over the next five years to make a significant impact on the desired goal: political will, scaling up the housing and service resources, building a countywide prioritization system, and understanding the impact of inflow on the population.
This year, the report from Abt Associates also features an online interactive platform. The interactive platform is an especially useful resource for practitioners, policymakers and grantmakers seeking to understand key opportunities and speedbumps in combating homelessness both within, and outside of Los Angeles County.