The Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative in Montgomery County, MD

This page was updated in May 2019 to note the conclusion of the county’s work with the Pew-MacArthur Results First Initiative.

Background

In April 2016, Montgomery County, Maryland, became the first county outside California to join Results First. Led by the Office of the County Executive and the County Council president, Montgomery County leaders committed to implementing the Results First program inventory approach to complement the county’s efforts to provide residents with a responsive, innovative, fiscally prudent, and transparent government.

Implementation

CountyStat, an office designed to help departments and executives effectively use data to make smarter decisions and achieve better outcomes, managed Montgomery County’s multidepartment effort. With support from CountyStat, the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (DOCR) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) worked to inventory and assess county program investments in criminal justice and youth mentoring programs, respectively.

Findings

DOCR catalogued all 86 of the services offered in its Detention Services Division, then focused on programs serving behavioral health needs or specialized populations. Of these, the majority were evidence-based and promising. The department made plans to evaluate the 11 programs that did not have adequate evidence.

In its assessment of youth mentoring programs, a work group comprised of DHHS staff found that only a few used evidence-informed models, and that performance measures used to track services varied widely. In response, the work group reviewed and selected a set of outcomes that contracted providers are now required to track when operating youth mentoring services for the county.

Learn more about our state work.