At FPG, our implementation researchers and practitioners work in communities and schools to use best practices from implementation science to support the implementation and scaling of evidence-informed programs and practices to improve outcomes and advance equity for children, youth, and families and the communities where they live. Through rigorous study designs, our implementation researchers and practitioners contribute to building the evidence for implementation strategies, frameworks, and models that can support effective translation of research evidence into practice settings. They also develop formative measures for assessing and improving implementation capacity in communities and service systems.
A hallmark of our work is a focus on implementation practice and the identification of skills and competencies needed to support implementation efforts and ensure sustainability and positive impacts. Through a range of partnerships and initiatives, we seek to build a workforce with the competencies needed to support effective implementation. We are committed to using science-based capacity-building approaches. And we embrace the co-creation of implementation strategies. Our capacity-building work is relationship-driven, flexible, and tailored to the assets and needs of the population to ensure that implementation strategies are a good contextual fit, relevant, and sustainable.
Featured People
Jessica Reed, MS, is an implementation specialist within the Impact Center at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. She has designed and implemented coaching practices for intermediary organizations and is driven to support people in roles where they help others and is passionate about supporting the workforce in human services systems to prevent burnout and reduce turnover. With more than two decades of experience in early childhood education, early childhood mental health, and parent support programs, Reed is passionate about equity, inclusion, racial justice, and creating nurturing and safe environments for young children to learn, grow, and thrive.
Rebecca Hebner Roppolo, MPH, is a senior implementation specialist with the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and lead of the Quality and Outcome Monitoring for Improvement Core for the Impact Center at FPG. Rebecca's work includes leadership of the quality and outcome monitoring for active implementation and scale-up of evidence-based prevention/well-being strategies in communities and state, regional, and national service systems. Roppolo's previous work includes state-level implementation and evaluation of communication campaigns, data monitoring and evaluation systems, and policy analysis.
Featured Projects
Math Implementation Cohort
A grant recently awarded to FPG's NIRN will help ensure students are receiving high-quality mathematics education in middle school—crucial years that can impact students’ chances at successful high school graduation and post-secondary career success. Although more middle schools are adopting high-quality math curriculum, research shows the systems that support instruction are often lacking or misaligned, especially for underrepresented and marginalized students.
NIRN will help address this issue thanks to funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
California Child Welfare CPM
The Impact Center at FPG is contributing to the development of regional and state capacities to implement the California Child Welfare Core Practice Model (CPM). In partnership with the California Department of Social Services, County Welfare Directors Association, Child and Family Policy Institute of California, California Social Work Education Center, and Regional Training Academies, our team helps collaborators co-design and support counties to implement and sustain the CPM.
Featured Blog Post
Coaching is a professional development opportunity designed to support individuals in successfully using or refining effective programs or practices. Ideally, the partnership between a coach and coachee will be highly communicative and collaborative. Learn more about coaching in this month's blog post, Three components of effective coaching.
And in case you missed the previous implementation blog posts, find four reasons to invest in cross-project collaboration, learn how to escape the data doldrums and discover how to define sustainability within the context of implementation science.
Featured Product
Effective Implementation Cohort List of Readiness Assessment Tools
The overall aim of the Effective Implementation Cohort (EIC) is to increase district capacity to implement a high-quality middle years math curriculum as part of a Coherent Instructional System to accelerate learning for students. The EIC Team seeks to support partnerships between providers and Local Education Agencies in their implementation and measurement efforts, as well as to collect and study data to answer the learning questions within the Learning Agenda. In addition to improving LEA and Provider capacity, the EIC has the goal of producing reliable, practical evidence and measures to inform the planning and implementation of a district-wide, high-impact math improvement initiative. One such resource is the EIC List of Readiness Assessment Tools. The purpose of this review is to highlight published and/or peer-reviewed tools assessing the readiness of the district (i.e., system level) for the implementation of evidence-based or evidence-informed practices, programs, or resources. In our review, we found a limited availability of such tools designed specifically for and within K-12 settings at the district and systems-level; however, we noted which tools could be adapted to K-12.
Our Priorities
Using best practices
We aim to use best practices from implementation science to integrate research and practice and improve outcomes for children and families.
Advancing equity
We aim to advance equity through the use of equitable implementation methods.
Working with stakeholders
We aim to co-create effective and relevant implementation strategies with local stakeholders.
Conducting relevant and rigorous research
We aim to conduct relevant and rigorous implementation research.
Building implementation capacity
We aim to build implementation capacity in community and service settings.
Building competencies
We aim to develop skills and competencies of professionals working to support implementation efforts.
Internship Opportunity
To promote future growth within the field of implementation science, we host an annual summer internship program that is designed to create a challenging and meaningful professional experience for the trainee(s) that includes mentoring, networking, professional development, and experiential learning opportunities. Interns benefit from exposure to implementation practice and research across diverse fields and in varied practice settings. This experience provides knowledge and skill development that should enhance and inform the intern's future academic and professional pursuits.
Featured Resource
COVID-19 Resources
The COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenging time for everyone, especially for children and families who found themselves navigating shifts and disruptions in the trusted routines, services, and schedules they typically rely on. During the pandemic, our researchers, implementation and technical assistance specialists, faculty fellows, students, and staff actively responded to the needs of families, educators, and other professionals by developing and offering evidence-based, user-friendly COVID-19 resources and information.
More about our work
- Learn about research and evaluation at FPG
- Learn about technical assistance at FPG
- Learn about informing policy at FPG
