At its heart, the Policymaker's Program encouraged a new way of thinking about collaboration to achieve results for children and families, one that emphasized services to valued, respected customres instead of clients, results linked to resources and prevention not corrections. As it struggled with customs deeply engrained in government thinking at the executive, legislative, and local levels, the program turned to nine local sites to implement this new way of thinking: Bangor, Maine; Barre, Vermont; Clearfield and Midvale, Utah; DeSoto, University City, and Walbridge, Missouri; Nashville, tennessee; and Newport, Rhode Island. Although the work of these sites was not always smooth, several important lessons have been learned from these efforts.

After ten years, ten guiding principles appear to light the way ahead for other grantmakers and units of government intent on improving service delivery:

1. The focus is on results.
2. Collaborative planning processes are valuable.
3. It all begins with leadership.
4. Collaboration structures are critical.
5. Collaboration depends on relationships.
6. Building capacity is the key strategy.
7. Planning and accountability are essential to success.
8. Data provide the road map.
9. The emphasis is on assets, not deficits.
10. Resources and their alignment require attention.

As the United States enters fully into the new mellennium, public confidence in the competence of government appears to be increasing. In this context, this report from the Policymakers' Program adds another small measure to the accumulating evidence of government integrity and efficacy. Indeed, one of the more remarkable results of this program is that, in several states, it is evident that the work continues despite 2002 budget pressures on state and local government. The Policymakers' Program demonstrates that when committed leaders at the state and local level convene to improve the quality of life in local communities, positive results follow for children, youth, and their families.

Early in 1992 the Danforth Foundation convened a group of policymakers and experts to explore establishing an "Education Policymakers'Institute" to help state leaders improve schools. The institute idea grew out of a key recommendation from the Foundation's Future Directions Advisory Committee which urged strengthening executive leadership and policymaking to create more productive and responsive schools.

As these discussions proceeded, it became clear that the effort should be broader, extending well beyond children, education, and a single institute. To be genuinely effective, school-improvement efforts needed to take parents and families into account. Confident children are developed in strong families. And families are stronger if they're embedded in healthy communities. For many children and families, the community infrastructure to sustain learning also needed to be examined--child care, job opportunities, economic development, health and mental health services, and child protective services and the juvenile justice system.

It was clear that a one-time institute could hardly take up and address this multitude of issues in a thorough or thoughtful fashion. Unless the Foundation was willing to redefine its focus and examine learning through these broader lenses--families, communites, and what these challenges mean in terms of professional growth for policymakers--an education institute itself would accomplish little.

Thus was launched the Policymakers' Program, a concept with an ambitious mission: engaging state policymakers in the task of ensuring that all children and youth succeed in developing into healthy and productive citizens, capable of learning not only in school but throughout their lives. The Foundation made a ten-year commitment to this effort.

Within that broad umbrella, the Policymakers' Program was designed to focus on improving five results for children and families:

1. A safe environment for children
2. Children coming to school ready to learn
3. Improved student achievement
4. Strong families
5. Healthy and productive communities

Working with a blue-ribbon advisory board and in cooperation with the Education Commission of the States, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Governor's Association, the Foundation created a careful balance of "top-down" support for "bottom-up" reform to address these challenges. The Policymakers' Program was designed to help state and local leaders create a vision for children and families--and define a process for achieving their vision that respects the unique traditions of each state and its communities.

As the Foundation noted in a report on the first five years of the program (The First Five Years, Danforth Foundation, 1998), the program's mission and goals, so easy to state, have proven frustrating and difficult to attain. The program highlighted a new way of thinking about achieving results for children, youth, and families, one that emphasized services to valued, respected customers instead of clients, results linked to resources, and prevention not corrections. It encouraged replacing compliance with deregulation; turf protection with collaboration and coordination among agencies; and business as usual with large-scale change in how government functions. In doing so, it struggled with customs deeply ingrained in government thinking at the legislative, executive, and local levels.

The use of data to aid decision making and evaluate results has been a central component of the program from the outset. The most effective initiatives have turned out to be those which built data usage into their plans to monitor the conditions of children, youth, and families and to tie data to specific benchmarks of achievement. As this report makes clear, sound data helped launch efforts in several states and communities to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. We have learned that when data and results are presented in a user-friendly fashion, policymakers and citizens immediately see their value. Hence, the lesson learned is that data must be comprehensible; evaluations must be related to policy questions; and citizens must participate in selecting the indicators--because that way they come to understand what is being measured and why it is important.

After ten years, the Policymakers' Program has helped about 500 legislators, agency heads, and governors and their advisors from 40 states rethink service organization and delivery in their communities. From those 40 states, the program has also selected 15 state teams (ranging in size from 12 to 27 people) and helped them develop comprehensive and coordinated action plans tailored to their specific needs. Recently, the program has refiend its focus further, moving, in its final four years, to an effort to help nine local/state teams, directed by local leaders, develop community-specific agendas. The work of the local communities was designed to inform state policymaking and create state policy that stimulates local leadership, action, and results.

The five-year report described how and why the Policymakers' Program was created, explored how the program operated, and included brief overviews of state action plans before developing some lessons learned. This report builds on that earlier volume and an evaluation of the program completed in 2000. This report describes how the program changed in recent years; it provides brief vignettes of the nine participating communities; and it develops some guiding principles to help foundations, state leaders, and others interested in supporting similar efforts.

The Danforth Foundation is pleased to have played a role in encouraging communities to improve results for their most vulnerable children and families. We are deeply indebted to our partners, the Education Commission of the States, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the National Governor's Association, and to the staff who represented them. A special thanks goes to Julie Bell of NCSL and Gerrit Westervelt of ECS for the constancy of their representation of the partners throughout many years of the program. The program could not have succeeded without the committed support of an engaged and active advisory committee. I want to acknowledge the debt we owe to Bill Purcell, Mayor of Nashville. As Mayor and, before that, as a state legislator, Bill served as chairperson of the advisory board for nine years and as an unwavering supporter and champion of this work.

The program also benefited from the outstanding service provided by its staff and consultants over the years. Sharon Brumbaugh, James Harvey, and Beverly Parsons. Harvey wrote all the highlights of our January meetings, provided initial drafts of our five- and ten-year reports, and helped advise us on program strategies. Brumbaugh and Parsons helped design the program and served as its evaluators. The last three years of the program were immeasurably helped by the presence of Debbie Miller and Sharon Carter at the Child and Family Policy Center at Vanderbilt University. Miller served as overall director of the program, bringing greater coherence to the effort in its final years. And Carter made sure that the ubiquitous meetings involved with a task of this nature developed smoothly and ran well.

The Danforth Foundation wants to acknowledge the continuity and support provided by the advisory committee, staff, and consultants. Their efforts made this important work possible.

Robert H. Koff Senior Vice President The Danforth Foundation