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The framework has been built. Now the work is about turning it into tools the sector can actually use—tools designed by community, tested by community, and built to last. Welcome to Phase 1!
Phase 1 · December 2025–August 2026
Community-Based Participatory Research
Facilitated by Imoyase Community Support Services, Phase 1 of the Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) process is a rigorous, community-centered approach to develop evaluation tools that reflect the actual realities of expanded learning programs across LA County. At the heart of this phase is a fundamental belief that: what counts as high-quality and positive impact for young people shouldn't be decided by researchers or funders alone. It should be defined by the youth, families, providers, and communities living it every day.
For this phase, we're focusing on the youth outcomes components of the ExpandLA framework—the impacts that LA County's own community of providers, youth, and caregivers identified as the markers of truly high-quality expanded learning. What LA said matters.
Community at the Center
19 organizations leading the way...
The expertise driving this process lives inside these organizations—in their programs, their staff, and the young people they serve every day. Their insights, experiences, and honest feedback are what will make these tools real, relevant, and built to last.
In Support
ExpandLA convenes and connects—serving as liaison between community partners and keeping the process moving. Imoyase Community Support Services serves as the evaluation learning partner, bringing deep expertise in community-based research to facilitate the process and design the tools.
...Building 5 community-generated tools...
...Building 5 community-generated tools...
By August 2026, this process will deliver a complete multi-site data collection protocol, co-designed with the sector, and ready to pilot.
…To measure 4 priority youth outcomes!
…To measure 4 priority youth outcomes!
What we’re measuring
The Quality & Impact Framework spans outcomes at the youth, program, and community level—a comprehensive vision for what success looks like across the entire expanded learning ecosystem. For this first phase, the Q&I Task Force recommended we start with youth outcomes.
In May 2026, providers participating in this phase 1 effort selected four areas as the focus for this round of tool development—areas the community identified as both meaningful and measurable, and the starting point for everything these tools are being built to capture.
The pilot is coming…
The pilot is coming…
and we want you in it!
and we want you in it!
In fall '26, we'll train a cohort of 20 expanded learning organizations on our newly developed cross-site evaluation tools. Come spring '27, those organizations will put the tools into practice-- shaping them into something the LA sector can use.
Want to be part of it?
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