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Colorado Implementation Science Unit

Two photos: 1. Two office workers looking at a computer screen; 2. A happy family looking up at the camera.

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.

Collaborative Management Program (CMP)
Colorado Kinnected Kinship Navigator Program
Family First Prevention Services
Fostering Opportunities
Additional projects

Blog Posts

CISU publishes blogs to share strategies, work products, and experiential knowledge to support our partner’s continued learning of implementation science and strategic research.

Evidence-building and implementation resources

Clearinghouses
Community participatory methods
Evidence-based decision making
Evidence-building
Logic models
Pre/post tests
Process maps
Strategy and frameworks

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.