Date Published:
In October, Dr. Caryn S. Ward presented "Developing the Marigolds, aka the Active Implementation Support Practitioners," at the Evidence and Implementation Summit in Melbourne, Australia.
Supporting leaders and teams within organizations to engage in active implementation support requires knowledge and skills in specific domains, including co-creation, ongoing improvement, and sustaining change (Metz et al., 2020; Albers et al., 2022). Those engaged in active implementation support often go by many different names, including coaches, improvement specialists, technical assistance providers, facilitators, consultants, mentors, or implementation specialists. The specific skill set of this workforce is often developed through job-embedded learning opportunities, certificate programs from different non-profit organizations, advanced graduate certificate programs or training programs within Institutes of Higher education, micro-credentialing programs, or other professional learning opportunities. The National Implementation Research Network is currently developing and implementing a micro-credentialing program to develop a diverse implementation support workforce through funding provided by the US Department of Ed. The first two cohorts have launched the program as of Spring 2023. The objectives of this presentation are to 1) share the theory and research basis of the micro-credentialing program, 2) describe the methods and metrics being used to support program recruitment, engagement, and improvement, 3) initial learnings from the analysis of data being collected to guide the ongoing development and improvement.