Colorado Implementation Science Unit

The Colorado Implementation Science Unit (CISU), established in 2022, is a pioneering initiative focused on optimizing human services delivery across Colorado by leveraging the best available research and evidence.

With generous support from partners like the Morgridge Family Foundation, Casey Family Programs, and others, CISU is:

• Enhancing programs, policies and practices at the Colorado Department of Human Services Office of Children Youth and Families; and
• Supporting community partners with developing and scaling effective prevention services that help keep families out of the state’s child welfare system and safely together.

How CISU helps

CISU focuses on service/program development, implementation, scaling/replication and evaluation, as well as strategic research to tackle knowledge gaps within Colorado’s children, youth and family service delivery systems.

To help programs, CISU provides thought partnership, technical assistance and other types of support. To learn more, please see CISU’s Menu of Services.

To advance strategic research, CISU develops the Office of Children, Youth and Families’ Strategic Research Agenda and uses approaches rooted in community-based participatory research to perform research.

Published work

CISU creates resources, such as readiness assessments, logic models, toolkits and frameworks, to facilitate program implementation and evidence generation. Furthermore, it releases reports aimed at enhancing practices, policies and processes. Access the documents published to date through the links below.

Fostering Opportunities

• Fostering Opportunities Site Readiness Assessment
• Fostering Opportunities Logic Model

Family First Prevention Services

• Scaling Family First Prevention Services: Needs of State Program Intermediaries
• Expanding Colorado’s Family First Service Array

Colorado Kinnected Kinship Navigator Program

• Colorado Kinnected Implementation Tools

Additional projects

• The Connection Between Child Maltreatment and Special Education

Evidence-building and implementation resources

Evidence-building

• Steps to Building Evidence (Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab)
• General Evidence-Building Guidance and Specific Considerations for Programs that Serve Survivors of Domestic Violence (Promising Futures)

Evidence-based decision making

• Evidence-Based Decision Making Guidance (Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab)

Pre/post tests

• Guidance for Pre- and Post-Test Design (EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation)

Clearinghouses

• Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse (Shares services that are reimbursable through the Family First Prevention Services Act)
• Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development (Shares services that reduce antisocial behavior and promote a healthy course of youth development and adult maturity)
• California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare
• What Works Clearinghouse (Shares services that improve educational outcomes for youth)
• Results First Clearinghouse Database (Brings together information on the effectiveness of social policy programs from nine national clearinghouses)

Logic models

• A Beginner’s Guide (Indiana Youth Institute)

Process maps

• 6 Simple Process Mapping Examples to Organize Your Work (Motion)

Community participatory methods

• Participatory Research Methods — Choice Points in the Research Process (Journal of Participatory Research Methods)
• Community-Engaged and Participatory Methods Toolkits (Urban Institute) 

Strategy and frameworks

• An Overview of the Active Implementation Frameworks (National Implementation Research Network)
• Implementation Science Frameworks (University of Washington)

Contact information

For inquiries regarding CISU or to request support, please contact Tiffany Madrid, Director of Strategic Research at the Office of Children, Youth and Families, via email at tiffany.madrid@state.co.us.