Gateway Early Childhood Alliance

Administrative Capacity Building Evaluation

Project Date

Aug 2022—Present

Type of Evaluation

Outcome

Setting

Community-based

Overview

The Gateway Early Childhood Alliance is working to create and sustain an early childhood system that ensures Black and Brown children and families have access to high-quality early childhood care and education. They coordinate a shared regional strategy to expand access, improve quality, support providers, and increase investment in the early childhood system.

The Evaluation Center is partnering with The Gateway Early Childhood Alliance to evaluate its Administrative Capacity Building program. This program supports early childhood providers to strengthen their administrative functions and ultimately serve more children and families with high-quality, affordable programs.

Project Description

Background

Gateway Early Childhood Alliance (The Alliance) was founded in 2021 to be a system coordinator that opens doors, shares information, makes connections, and establishes relationships that lead to a better, more affordable, higher-quality early childhood system for the St. Louis region. A product of over a decade of community-led work, The Alliance is led by providers, parents, and advocates.

One part of The Alliance’s work is facilitating capacity-building opportunities that help increase access to high-quality care. Their Administrative Capacity Building Program is focused on providing training and coaching to providers focused on increasing revenue, improving efficiencies, and decreasing costs.

In 2022 and 2023, the Evaluation Center will facilitate evaluation planning with The Alliance and their capacity building partners. In 2023, we will evaluate this pilot program.

Evaluation Center Activities

  • Develop logic model and evaluation plan.
  • Develop and administer surveys.
  • Conduct qualitative data collection.
  • Document activities.
  • Evaluate impact, comparing capacity building models.
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