In 1994 Alameda County was designated by the state to pilot blended funding strategies through AB 1741 to improve the well-being of families and children, especially those who are in, or at risk of being in, out-of-home placement. The Interagency Children's Policy Council (ICPC), a collaborative of agencies serving Alameda County's vulnerable children and families, was the Coordinating Council for the initiative. ICPC used cross-agency collaboration to improve outcomes for children and families while promoting institutional change at the county level.

The County selected the Prescott neighborhood in West Oakland and the Harder-Tennyson neighborhood of South Hayward for two 5-year pilot projects to develop neighborhood-based, school-linked networks of family support. These neighborhoods had strong indigenous leadership at the local level, a track record of community participation, and large concentrations of the target population. The pilots used community-based and school-based models of service integration, building on existing infrastructure and strengthened by federal Family Preservation and Support funding and SB 620 Healthy Start grants, along with welfare-to-work demonstration projects. The two neighborhoods developed Healthy Start Neighborhood Collaboratives to lead their efforts.

BPA worked with the two neighborhoods to design and plan a participatory evaluation of the pilots that would use neighborhood-based evaluators, working with county staff, to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot. The evaluation design was primarily for a process study, relying on interviews with service providers and service recipients, observation of services, surveys of neighborhood residents, and focus groups. The design allowed for linking the process study with more formal measures of outcomes. During the design process, BPA worked with each neighborhood to identify appropriate short- and long-term outcome measures based on the neighborhood's own agreed-upon goals and priorities. The process evaluation was designed to provide ongoing feedback to neighborhood leaders, as well as to the county, about the pilot projects' effectiveness.