The Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative works to improve lives for low-income families

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A handful of charities are working together to improve the lives of thousands of low-income children and families.

The Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative is celebrating 10 years and the group is making Chicago Proud.

Lori Ann Bass from Christopher House and Maricela Garcia from Gads Hill Center were in the ABC7 Studio to talk about the collaboration.

The Chicago Benchmarking Collaborative (CBC) is a partnership of seven well-established education and human services agencies that have committed to working together to implement data-informed program improvements.

Collaborating partners track a set of common outcomes in areas of early childhood, after school, youth and parent engagement to improve program effectiveness, create efficiencies and increase mission impact. By sharing program data for comparative insights and learning, each organization capitalizes on each other's best practices to tangibly improve outcomes for the 12,000 low-income children and families they collectively serve in some of Chicago's most high-need neighborhoods.

Among the partner organizations, 77 percent of the data-driven goals set in 2018 were met or exceeded.

The seven partner organizations currently within the CBC include the Christopher House, Chicago Commons Association, Chicago Youth Centers, Chinese American Service League, Erie Neighborhood House, Gads Hill Center, and Marillac St. Vincent Family Services.