Glossary of Terms

Failing urban neighborhoods:

Areas where conventional policing techniques are ineffective in achieving lasting change.

Financial empowerment services:

Access to safe, affordable financial products and services can help immigrants move forward financially.

Financial inclusion:

Access to useful and affordable financial products and services that meet individual and business needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way.

Financial model framework:

A financial model that combines account, finance, and business metrics to create an abstract representation of a company, forecasted into the future.

Findings:

The principal outcomes of a research project; what the project suggested, revealed or indicated. This usually refers to the totality of outcomes, rather than the conclusions or recommendations drawn from them.

Field catalyst:

A newly-defined kind of field-building intermediary organization that works collaboratively to “build a marketplace for ideas and a framework for action,” and serves as a “hub for spokes of advocacy and action” to “roll all stakeholders toward a defined goal” and tip the scales of change.

Findings:

Factual statements about a project or program which are based on empirical evidence. Findings include statements and visual representations of the data, but not interpretations, judgments or conclusions about what the findings mean or imply.

Flexible solutions:

Swift, often experimental short-term design interventions.

Focus Group:

A group of people convened for the purpose of obtaining perceptions or opinions, suggesting ideas, or recommending actions. A focus group is a method of collecting information for the evaluation process that relies on the particular dynamic of group settings.

Force multiplier (Army special forces):

A capability that, when added to and employed by a combat force, significantly increases the combat potential of that force and thus enhances the probability of successful mission accomplishment.

Formative Evaluation:

An evaluation conducted during the course of project implementation with the aim of improving performance during the implementation phase. Related term: process evaluation.

Framework:

A set of tools, libraries, conventions, and best practices that attempt to abstract routine tasks into generic modules that can be reused.

Functional Zero:

Demonstrate fewer people experiencing homelessness than community can house in a month, including transitional housing.