CQI Case Studies
Performance Measurement Capacity
Head Start / Early Head Start ⎮ YWCA Teen Parent Mentor Program
Head Start/Early Head Start (HS/EHS) program is a federally funded holistic child development program that promotes healthy prenatal care for pregnant women, enhances the development of very young children (ages 0 to 5), and promotes healthy family effectiveness. An initiative of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services & its Office of the Administration for Children & Families, the program is operated locally by Guilford Child Development.
CQI Goal
Train staff in Headstart CQI expectations and principles in order to cultivate a baseline understanding of CQI, develop stronger CQI and data management tools and processes, and comply with performance measurement standards of funders.
CQI Cycle
Plan
Design CQI training content to ensure all component area leaders have a shared understanding of CQI and identify ways to improve cross-component collaboration on annual improvement goals.
Do
Conducted a half-day CQI training that included an overview of the Ready Ready CQI initiative and how EHS is engaging in this county-wide work, explored the CQI framework, and discussed ways to strengthen the CQI culture within EHS.
Study
Initial feedback suggested that staff generally understood CQI and are motivated to develop stronger internal practices to shift beyond compliance to developing a CQI culture that is inclusive of staff, families, and other key stakeholders.
Act
EHS staff meetings now include time for regular and substantive analysis and discussion of data and staff feedback to inform program and service improvement.
Learning
CQI training was meaningful for staff and enabled them to work within and across departments to identify strategies to strengthen CQI culture.
CQI is a process the program lead wants to continue adapting. Leadership team meetings will include a focus on learning, planning, and improving collaborations.
