The Innovate Phase: Co-Creating Evidence-Informed Solutions to Improve Human Services Programs

The Learn, Innovate, Improve (or LI²) process is an approach that practitioners might use as part of the change and continuous quality improvement process. LI² was developed by Mathematica Policy Research in partnership with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) within the Administration for Children and Families and Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child. LI² is distinct from other change management strategies in its explicit emphasis on: (1) close collaboration between researchers and practitioners for sustainable change, (2) embedding evidence and analytic approaches at every stage, (3) capacity building of state and local human services agencies to self-administer the improvement process, and (4) knowledge building for the program and the field. This practice brief focuses on the second phase of the process—Innovate—which is intended to help both researchers of human services programs and the professionals who administer programs to generate new and innovative ideas to address pressing challenges.