Past Successes and Future Directions of the Results First Initiative for Supporting Evidence-Based Policy Decisions

In recent years many state agencies have increased the use of evidence in program funding decisions with the goal of improving outcomes across all aspects of public health. In many states, there are on-going efforts to carry out program inventories of intervention and prevention efforts and determine which are backed up by evidence, whether an economic return may be possible, and what implementation monitoring is in place. Increasingly, states are issuing their own reports that demonstrate which programs are having an impact and potentially providing relief for typically over-burdened public budgets. States have found support through initiatives that make available tools to carry out the process. Notably, the Results First Initiative, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and MacArthur Foundation, has provided tools for states to evaluate their programs based on collective evidence, establish processes to increase impact, and if possible to determine the projected return-on-investment from programs being implemented. Results First extended work that was first established in Washington state over 20 years ago, through the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP). Last year, three Results First resources were transferred to Penn State: the Cost-Benefit Model, the Evidence-Based Policymaking Resource Center, and the Clearinghouse Database. Going forward, the Evidence to Impact Collaborative at Penn State will support use of these tools in states that have been active with Results First as well as pursuing outreach to non-active states.

This roundtable brings together representatives of the work carried out through Results First, both current and past, as well as experts around the translation of evidence into tools for evidence-based policy such as that initiated by WSIPP. In this panel, we will discuss key issues related to the use of such tools in states. We will review how Results First has worked in the past, providing information on the impact it has had over the past 10+ years. We will also discuss current work, and the opportunities and challenges that exist around using these tools to advance the use of evidence in local funding decisions. A number of questions will help shape discussion in this roundtable. What type of collaboration across state agencies and government branches can help support use of these tools? How can the use of Results First work further the initiation of preventive-based efforts relative to treatment-based programming? What are the necessary next steps to modify the tools to enable greater application in current and new states working with Results First? Overall, we aim for this discussion to increase awareness of the potential of Results First to support states efforts for supporting the use of evidence in prevention science, and to solicit feedback on ways we can increase application and usability of the tools in the years to come.