Evidence2Success Community of Practice
Where Community Insight Sparks Impact
The Evidence2Success (E2S) Community of Practice (COP) is a collaborative space where everyone is treated as an expert, with equal value placed on lived experience, cultural knowledge, and professional insight. Now housed at NREIC, the COP brings people together to exchange wisdom, elevate community-driven priorities, and spark meaningful dialogue. Relaunching in 2025 as a year-long initiative, the COP is a partnership between the Casey Foundation, NREIC, and CYC to spotlight what matters most to communities and engage a national audience in learning and collective action.
Previous Meetings
Measuring What Matters Most:
The Role Content Relevance & Engagement Play in Outcomes and Belonging
September 17, 2025
Presenters: Matt Billings, Amanda Fixsen, Liz Guillen, Pilar McCloud, Deybi Pineda
Programs and practices are too often designed outside of communities and then dropped in, with little relevance to lived realities. This lack of connection not only limits engagement but also reinforces patterns of exclusion and mistrust. Engagement is more than participation. It’s about being seen, valued, and connected to programs and systems in ways that reflect identity, history, and lived experience. Representation in the workforce, authentic facilitation, and the ability to adjust in real time all shape whether communities feel true belonging—or whether efforts fall short.
Our fifth Community of Practice lifts up stories from Black/African American and immigrant experiences to highlight why participant relevance and engagement are essential. We will also connect these lived experiences to the National Race Equity Implementation Center’s Content Relevance & Participant Engagement Survey, exploring how it can measure, validate, and hold us accountable to communities themselves.
The Data Sovereignty Project
July 30, 2025
Presenters: Leon Aragon, Matt Billings, Angelina Callis, Eldrin Deas
Research and data are stories, they’re people, they’re capital. They’re stories that are too often incomplete, told through the words and experiences of others, or erased entirely. Research and data too often intentionally undervalue, misrepresent, and erode the deep knowledge, cultural strength, and generations of insight held within communities. Communities are the ones best suited to set research agendas, analyze their own data, make decisions about what is best for themselves— what to prioritize, what to invest time, energy, and revenue in— because they are the experts. Communities have the right to use their own data and research to generate revenue that is invested back into the community.
Our fourth Community of Practice focuses on historical approaches to data sovereignty as well as the National Race Equity Implementation Center’s approach to investing in and supporting communities on their own journeys to data sovereignty.
From Disaggregation to Equity Centered Tools and Practice:
Centering Race, Culture, Identity, and Community in Implementation Science
June 25, 2025
Presenters: Matt Billings, Amanda Fixsen, Ashley Reyes, Dahiana Rodriguez, Luis Rodriguez, Laurie Tochiki
If implementation science came out of a need to close the gap between programs that science tells us are effective and getting those programs into use in practice, then who is closing the gap between the questions science asks, the solutions science is producing and what matters most to communities and residents? How do we design implementation tools and practices that are at the core of generating optimal outcomes, scale and sustainability? Who is really in charge, and where do the answers and expertise lie?
Keeping the Fire:
Native American Program, Practice, Healing, and Ways of Knowing
May 28, 2025
Presenters: Leon Aragon, Crystal Austin, Matt Billings, Cheryl Honnie, Cindy Myers
This session explores Native American programs, practices, healing, and ways of knowing. Together, we examine how culture, identity, and relationship to place are not only central to community well-being, but are also powerful forms of evidence. This conversation invites us to expand our understanding of what is evidence by honoring the long-standing knowledge systems that continue to sustain Indigenous communities.
What We Know, What To Do and Now We Pivot:
Financing and Fund Development
April 23, 2025
Presenters: Matt Billings, Margaret Flynn-Khan, Evelyn Michelman
This session explores what we know about the current federal and philanthropic landscapes and how financing can be purposefully centered in the year ahead. Together, we consider community resilience, shifting policies, and funding opportunities while lifting up actionable strategies to anticipate change and pivot with relevance. This conversation invites us to see financing not just as a technical process, but as a tool for sustaining communities, amplifying their leadership, and positioning organizations to respond with strength and clarity.