One thing that stands out about LEO’s approach to building evidence is that we are agnostic to location, type of organization running a program and even to the type of anti-poverty program. It’s not that we don’t care…rather, we care very much about finding innovative approaches to solving poverty and to building evidence around their impact. But if the program is in South Dakota, that’s fine with us; if it’s focused on housing, that’s great; if it serves seniors, great. As long as the focus is in improving lives and reducing poverty, we’re interested.
This reflects our approach to seeking the ground-level insights into what can work to change the seemling intractable nature of poverty. Our questions and choices are motivated by what social service providers are driving forward, not what we in the abstract set out to study. This approach is well reflected in a few key stats: We operate in 25 (50%) of the US States, our studies are in both rural and urban settings, our studies span the range of social sector and human challenges—from education to housing to health to criminal justice to economic mobility. The programs we study serve people of all backgrounds. The partners we work with are both nonprofit and government. Our supporters include both individual donors and foundations.
Now this should not be mistaken for non-selectivity. We are extraordinarily selective in how we approach partnership—key factors include a commitment to the fundamental belief that poverty can be solved. That’s our common ground floor. We also seek commitment to shared learning. That’s to ensure that the researchers respect the experiences of providers and providers are willing to learn from outside researchers what impact is measurable—and to learn and grow from that. We hold in common the goal of understanding impact and making choices based on this evidence.
One thing we say often is that our partisanship is for people in poverty. So we also work in “red, blue and purple” states. Our motivation remains to challenge the norm of how poverty is being solved—so we seek common ground especially with policymakers who focus on how to BEST serve our most vulnerable communities and neighbors. Our partners here are those interested in solving, understanding, doubling down on what works, reconsidering what doesn’t and keeping at the core the dignity of people we are serving.
Our partners here are those interested in solving, understanding, doubling down on what works, reconsidering what doesn’t and keeping at the core the dignity of people we are serving.
LEO is evaluating two programs that highlight our commitment to common ground and our unique approach to solving poverty. In an era of quick wins, AI and flashy news stories, LEO’s approach focuses on quality of program, uniqueness of approach, and commitment to clear impact on the population being served. The Uplifting Parents program in Rapid City, South Dakota provides wraparound support to single parents so they can achieve their goal of completing a college degree while parenting. LEO took on this evaluation, because Catholic Social Services of South Dakota and a local foundation committed to rigorous research with LEO. LEO took on this study even though the program, based in a small city, serves a small number of people each cohort and each year. LEO worked with the partners to allow for both randomization and for building towards the needed sample size over a 4 year period. Despite the long wait for a research paper, LEO committed to the partner and the people UP serves so that we can have more evidence about what works to lift up single parents towards economic mobility.
Similarly, LEO is evaluating the Kidz2Leaders’ Camp Hope Program. Over the course of a week-long summer camp, Camp Hope children with incarcerated parents are given the opportunity to learn Christian principles and build community with one another. K2L provides the kids stability and fun camp activities while they learn to form trusting and healthy relationships, plus K2L allows campers to return to the camp each summer until they turn 15. Because of the focus on a very vulnerable population and the organization’s commitment to building evidence, LEO partners with K2L even though this is a very slow build towards evidence—with preliminary results expected 10 years after the study started.
With a focus on organizations building programs from the ground up to support people in their communities, LEO takes on the work of building evidence no matter the time commitment, the geography, or the type of anti-poverty program. That is our call to the common good.