Data and Evaluation Associate

Position Summary:

This posting is with the Philadelphia Office of Children and Families (OCF) Division of Performance Management and Technology (PMT). OCF supports Philadelphia's most vulnerable children and families and prioritizes safe children, strong families, and supported schools. OCF administers a number of City- supported programs, including Out-of-School Time, Career and Connected Learning (C2L) and PHLpreK. OCF also oversees the Department of Human Services (DHS), which provides child welfare services, delinquent services, and child welfare prevention programs to promote safety, permanency, and well- being for children and youth at risk of abuse, neglect, and delinquency.

The Division of Performance Management and Technology supports the core missions of OCF and DHS in the following ways:

• Evaluating service quality and consistency, identifying needed improvements, and tracking these improvements over time;
• Building a world class data and information technology infrastructure;
• Developing and maintaining integrated information systems and data analytics so that practitioners can easily access and utilize quality and accurate data in their day-to-day decisions;
• Strengthening how the child welfare system utilizes data to make informed decisions about the children and families we serve; and
• Conducting short- and long-term research to evaluate the effectiveness of programs and system-wide initiatives in order to continually inform child welfare policy and practice.

The focus areas of responsibility of the Data and Evaluation Associate are to: 1) design rigorous mixed methods program and agency evaluations (integrating qualitative and quantitative data 2) clean, manage, integrate and analyze large data sets from OCF, system partners and other public institutions – utilizing various open source and licensed data cleaning and analytics software products 3) design, test and administer surveys to internal and external OCF stakeholders and partners - and 4) provide primary data integration and analysis support to performance management initiatives, including working with finance, child welfare and other OCF related data sets.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Identify, design and implement research and evaluation projects that advance program and system performance improvements
• Develop and share knowledge of proprietary reporting and data collection tools
• Team with IT to develop rigorous and innovative data solutions for stakeholders
• Clean, manage and integrate data from key system sources – child welfare, juvenile justice, education, behavioral health and other possible system partners – to produce short and long- term outcome analyses
• Generate graphs, tables and other data visuals using “R” and/or other appropriate licensed or open source software
• Supervise interns and other junior staff responsible for supporting key performance management and data efforts
• Plan and write reports and other communication pieces for OCF that translate complex child welfare data into accessible and easy to understand information for the general public
• Advance data sharing and analysis within and across DHS stakeholders including, but not limited to, the Juvenile Justice System (JJS) and the School District of Philadelphia
• Meet with key OCF service provider leadership and key practitioners and stakeholders to gather feedback on specific human service and education related research and evaluation initiatives
• Work collaboratively with all relevant child welfare leaders and stakeholders to ensure quality implementation of performance management activities and processes
• Prepare project reports, briefs, and/or presentations for OCF leadership and relevant system leaders and stakeholders
• Performs related research, evaluation and supervision duties as assigned
• Other relevant duties as assigned.

Skills Required:

Quantitative:

• Knowledge of statistical software such as "R"
• Understanding of social statistics theory, assumptions, and uses
• Ability to perform generalized linear regression analysis, correlation analysis, and standardization for analysis across jurisdictions
• Data visualization
• Knowledge of mapping and dashboard tools similar to ArcGIS and Tableau

General:

• Program evaluation and outcomes measurement
• Strong research, analysis, and writing skills
• Clear and concise communication of ideas and findings – orally and in writing
• Effectively representing the project goals and activities to staff and stakeholders
• Identifying several courses of action to make informed decisions about project development and implementation
• Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with child welfare system leaders and stakeholders
• Microsoft Office Suite, including data analysis tools like Excel and/or Open Source tools

Physical Demands:

Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required such as maneuvering in office space – reaching file cabinets, fax, and copier machines when necessary. Must be able to sit for up for extended periods of time, with breaks, looking at the computer monitor and using a keyboard and mouse typing or performing data entry functions. Able to travel.

Education and Experience:

• Master's Degree in Social Policy, Public Administration and/ or relevant social science
• At least three years experience in data analytics and cleaning, programming, research, and evaluation design and/ or other rigorous data research experience

Equal Opportunity Employment:

PMHCC, Inc. is committed to equal opportunity. It is our policy to support equal employment for all employees and applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual preferences, age, national origin, disability, behavioral health status, military status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Americans with Disabilities Act:

Employees as well as applicants who are currently, or become disabled, must be able to perform the functions of the job with either reasonable accommodation or unaided. PMHCC, Inc. will examine reasonable accommodations on a case by case basis in accordance with the law