Two grants, totaling nearly $2 million, have been awarded to University of Pennsylvania professors Dennis Culhane and John Fantuzzo, enabling the continued development and expanded use of Integrated Data Systems, or IDS, for evidence-based policymaking through the Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy, or AISP, initiative.
IDS link existing administrative data across multiple agencies and community providers to improve programs and policies through evidence-based collaboration. IDS help leaders and researchers evaluate what works, what doesn’t and how social problems can be effectively solved to meet the needs of families and individuals.
The major grants came this year from both the Laura and John Arnold Foundation – $1.1 million – and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation – $800,000.
The MacArthur Foundation has been a longtime supporter of AISP and has contributed more than $5 million to the initiative since 2008. This is the first time AISP has received funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.
“MacArthur continues to generously support our work in the development, use and innovation of IDS,” said Fantuzzo, the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations in Penn’s Graduate School of Education. “Through this most recent grant, we will be able to implement a training and technical assistance system to benefit states and counties that are developing IDS, create and test a model of IDS use for randomized control trials and generate recommendations for continued innovations in the field by establishing the AISP Research Consortium.”
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