Prenatal-to-Three Evaluation Partnership

Early ChildhoodDec 9 2021

Updated May 2024

Between 2020 and 2024, Child Trends partnered with The Heinz Endowments to support their efforts to build a stronger and more equitable prenatal-to-three (PN-3) system in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The PN-3 system is complex and includes a network of organizations—along with related policies and programs—that support families with children from pregnancy to age three across multiple domains.

As part of the partnership, Child Trends worked closely with The Heinz Endowments to create a shared vision for an equitable PN-3 system in the county, a community-driven grantmaking initiative, and a collaborative of PN-3 funders. The team also conducted in-depth research and evaluation. Over the last four years, the team conducted interviews with key PN-3 system leaders across several timepoints; fielded multiple surveys; led literature reviews, policy analyses, and fiscal mapping; and created an interactive map of where key PN-3 resources are located relative to family demographics. You can read more about the partnership, including key findings and implications from the work, in the following products:

Prenatal to Three in Allegheny County includes a framework for understanding the PN-3 system, an interactive map of PN-3 services, an analysis of relevant state and local policies, and guidelines for equitable grantmaking;

Investment Advisory Councils: A Community-Driven Grantmaking Pilot includes insights from a pilot program to support community-driven grantmaking and collaboration around key PN-3 issues; and

Investing in Prenatal-to-Three (PN-3) System Change in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania details findings from a survey and interviews with local leaders and practitioners about how they have noticed the PN-3 system change over the past five years.