Community Systems Development Lessons Learned

Between October 2018 and February 2019, our evaluation team conducted 16 focus group interviews with 103 participants from three stakeholder groups: network coordinators (2), network members (10), and parents (4). Our team traveled to the following counties for data collection: Adams, Cicero, Chicago Southeast, Kane, McLean, Rock Island, Stephenson, Tazewell, Wabash/ Edwards, and Will. Purposive sampling methods were used to intentionally recruit focus group participants involved in the AOK Networks as well as local parents who utilize early childhood resources in their communities. All focus group interviews were conducted in English, and an on-site Translator was present in interviews with participants who preferred to speak Spanish. The focus group interviews, led by trained facilitators, lasted 12-64 minutes each in duration and were all audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Our evaluation team independently read the transcriptions and created codes for each stakeholder group. The evaluation team met weekly to combine their codes and Thematic Network Analysis was used to identify common themes across the three groups. Results from the evaluation will include descriptive summaries and lessons learned for each respective county and the overall AOK Networks.