Our Work

High Impact Projects (HIPs)

What Are HIPs?

HIP partners, much like Target Champions, make a powerful commitment by identifying and naming their specific contributions towards regional targets. They measure how many more children and young people will reach Cradle to Career outcomes as a result of their collaborative efforts. The process they follow is:

  • Define the Project Scope: Clarify project boundaries, deliverables, and objectives.
  • Set Goals and Targets: Establish clear and measurable goals aligned with cradle to career outcomes.
  • Develop an Action Plan: Create a detailed plan outlining steps, timelines, and responsibilities.
  • Determine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Identify metrics to track progress and measure success.
  • Implement Ongoing Improvement: Continuously assess and refine strategies to enhance project effectiveness.
  • Ensure Sustainability and Scalability: Develop strategies to maintain and expand successful initiatives.

Strategy #2: Launching and Supporting High Impact Projects (HIPs)

Our second strategy is about tackling challenges that are too big for any single organization to handle alone. High Impact Projects (HIPs) are groundbreaking initiatives designed to address the root causes hindering children and young people from achieving success, from early childhood through to their careers. These projects fill the critical gaps in our collective efforts to meet Cradle to Career milestones, identified through key drivers and thorough assessments.

HIPs fall into two categories:

    • Addressing Common Barriers Among Target Champions: Some HIPs are specifically designed to help multiple Target Champions overcome common barriers that hinder the success of the young people they support. These projects directly accelerate progress toward our regional goal of 71,000 more children and young people achieving Cradle to Career outcomes by 2030.
    • Incubating Innovative Solutions: Other HIPs focus on developing and testing new approaches or models to address the unique challenges and gaps that young people face, which impede their ability to reach Cradle to Career milestones.

Within the two categories, a total of four HIPs are either launched or slated to launch in 2024: 

  • Addressing Common Barriers Among Target Champions:
    • Re-Engage Learners to Complete Credentials and Degrees
    • Expand and Enhance Training Sites to Meet Employers’ Workforce Needs and Help Learners Earn a Skill or Credential
    • Increasing Learning at Work Opportunities 
  • Incubating Innovative Solutions:
    • Improve Educational and Career Guidance to Equip Young People with the Supports they Need Along Their Journey to Earn a Skill or Credential

Both Target Champions and High Impact Projects Name Their Number

Through these two strategies, we identify the number of young people we aim to impact for each Cradle to Career Outcome annually, ensuring we have a tangible path to reach our 71K goal. To guarantee success, we support at least double the number of children and youth needed each year. For example, to hit our target of 3,398 in 2024-2025, we will support at least 6,796 more young people. We are developing a Resiliency Project Data Hub, which will track the progress we have made towards achieving these goals.

Key Action Steps for 2024

  • Develop a timeline to prioritize which HIPs to launch as additional resources are secured and the capacity of the RMP Core Team expands.
  • Hire Director of High Impact Projects to be dedicated capacity towards advancing these initiatives.
  • As HIPs launch, support them to name their number towards the 71,000 goal.
  • Ensure each HIP that launches has the following elements in place:
    • Detailed action plan that includes: specific challenges the project intends to address, focus of the project, initial targets and how they tie into cradle to career outcome level impact, timelines and milestones, key driver visualization of what factors exist and how much influence they have on the problem the HIP is working to address, calls to action.
    • Engaged critical stakeholders through stakeholder mapping.
    • Efforts to pursue funding to support collective efforts.
    • Understanding of the long term community investments required to reach the project’s ultimate goal and the return on investment for the community.
    • Identify what funding is “unlockable” to support the project. (What funding exists that is not currently being accessed or optimized and how it could be leveraged to support the project).

Performance Measures and Metrics

Below are the data points we are using to track progress and impact of this strategy. Additionally, each HIP has their own set of metrics that they are tracking as well. These metrics are tracked in real time and will be publicly available through The Resiliency Project Data Hub.

  • # active High Impact Projects underway
  • # partners and community members participating in High Impact Projects
  • # of dollars raised / aligned to support collective efforts and engaged RMP partners
  • # programs/practices, policies, or funding models effectively scaled within the region
  • # children and young people HIPs have “committed to” towards annual target of 3,398
  • # children and young people impacted through HIPs

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Jody Nowicki, Senior Director of Collaborative Action, JodyNowicki@RMPBackbone.org, learn more about High Impact Projects.