With support from the Institute for Child Success, the Office of the Mayor or Tallahassee and the Office of State Representative Loranne Ausley studied the feasibility of using Pay for Success, an innovative financing mechanism, to improve outcomes for children and families in Leon County’s designated Promise Zone (PZ). Pay for Success (PFS) financing, also called “Social Impact Bonds,” can bring new resources, new partners, and a new focus on outcomes to early childhood services. Tallahassee was one of two jurisdictions selected to receive technical assistance from ICS in 2017 through the U.S. Social Innovation Fund’s Pay for Success program. The feasibility study focused on doubling the reach of the Big Bend Quality Improvement System’s (QIS) early learning pilot in the Promise Zone, with a primary focus on Early Head Start. Keeping in mind the breadth of need within the Promise Zone, Tallahassee’s feasibility study expanded to include Family Connects, Healthy Families America, and Healthy Start.

At the direction of the Office of the Mayor, the latter half of this ten-month feasibility study prioritized program impacts, with the completion of steps not directly tied to impact postponed and likely to be completed after the official end of the feasibility study partnership. The study concluded that the use of Pay for Success financing to improve outcomes for children and families in Leon County’s Promise Zone is feasible on five out of nine indicators, corresponding to five of the key feasibility study steps already completed.