The purpose of this report was to provide an external review of the participatory decision making process used in Phase I of the “Clarkston Families Decide” CDF Early Learning Community Trust (ELCT) conducted between July 2014 and January 2015. The reviewer’s primary purpose was to provide information about the process used to develop

the project outcomes in Phase I that may be useful in the overall evaluation of the ELCT. The reviewer employed primarily a qualitative research methodology as the data sources were text and visual secondary data from pre-existing documents created during the process. The primary source materials used in this analysis were twenty-two (22)

documents from ten (10) total (4 trust and 6 trustee) meetings that spanned seven (7) months. These documents include agendas and facilitator discussion guides from community trusts and trustee meetings, notes and summaries from small and larger groups in trust and trustee meetings, issue rankings, and project ideas with descriptions.