Funders often face a persistent and frustrating reality: even when they invest in strong, evidence-informed programs, implementation quality varies widely across settings. The gap is rarely about motivation or scientific rigor. More often, it reflects differences in local context, readiness, and the availability of skilled implementation support professionals and infrastructure.
The Center for Implementation (TCI) is a social impact organization that works with funders who are looking to provide deeper levels of support to funded projects. TCI partners with funders in multiple ways, embedding implementation training for funded initiatives, helping build shared implementation language and expectations across projects, and supporting funders to build implementation communities and infrastructure. The goal is to move beyond funding one-off projects and instead to build sustainable capacity that can support the scale-up of evidence-based programs and practices.
This was a challenge recognized by Kids Brain Health Network (KBHN), a Canadian organization that funds and connects teams working to improve outcomes for children and youth living with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families, including autism, cerebral palsy, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Several years ago, KBHN reflected on the trajectory of funded projects and began asking a broader systems-level question: beyond funding strong ideas, how could KBHN support funded teams to build capacity and infrastructure needed to implement and scale high-quality programs for children and youth living with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families.
Rather than treating this as a project performance issue, KBHN approached it as a systems question. KBHN asked: How could funded teams develop shared skill sets and a common language around implementation, and what infrastructure would be required across the Network to better support program spread, scale, and implementation?
Integrating Implementation Training Into Funding Support
To address this gap, KBHN partnered with Drs. Julia Moore and Sobia Khan from TCI. This partnership was part of a broader effort to embed implementation science more intentionally into KBHN’s funding ecosystem (alongside other elements, such as commercialization and research impact). KBHN wanted project teams to be better prepared for the realities of implementing complex programs in schools, clinics, and community settings.
Starting in May 2022, a cohort of 25 people from funded teams (researchers, trainees, and implementation partners) joined TCI’s StrategEase course to learn about applying implementation science, and later transitioned to TCI’s Implementation Support Specialist Certificate program. Initially, the group focused on foundational training, introducing participants to common language and key implementation science concepts such as assessing readiness and context, selecting implementation strategies to address barriers, and planning for adaptations and sustainability over time.
Participation expanded quickly. There have now been four cohorts of teams that have completed the foundational training. Others continued through the full certification to become Level 1 Implementation Support Specialists. Over time, KBHN sent multiple cohorts through the program, creating a growing group of researchers and practitioners across the country who shared a common approach to implementation.
What Changed
In an effort to support teams during the training, starting in 2024, KBHN coordinated a group of course participants to come together to support each other during the training. A member of the KBHN community who had completed the program facilitated sessions for participants. These meetings were not designed as lectures or updates. Instead, they focused on how implementation concepts applied to the day-to-day challenges teams were facing.
Attendance was voluntary, but interest was strong. Participants used the sessions to talk through obstacles, compare approaches, and reflect on what was working in different contexts. Over time, the group became an open community available to anyone within the KBHN community, not just those currently enrolled in training.
This peer support structure has continued to grow. What started as a cohort-specific follow-up has become a standing Implementation Community for implementation-focused discussion across KBHN-funded projects. This is a shift from one-off training to sustained, relational implementation support embedded in the network.
Expanding Capacity Across the Network
Today, KBHN continues to invest in sending additional teams through the program. A new cohort will complete the Level 1 Implementation Support Specialist certificate, while a group of people who have already completed Level 1 are gearing up to complete Level 2.
The result is a distributed network of professionals across Canada who share a common approach to implementation, while working in diverse settings. It’s a growing implementation infrastructure. These practitioners are responsible for translating research into practice for children and families, often in environments shaped by limited resources, staff turnover, and competing demands.
By investing in implementation capacity and building a supportive community, KBHN has expanded its focus from what programs aim to deliver to how those programs are carried out, scaled, and sustained over time. Teams are better equipped to anticipate contextual challenges, engage stakeholders, build trusting relationships, navigate complexity, and make adaptations when conditions change.
A Different Way to Think About Sustainability
For funders, this example underscores an important shift in thinking about how to support implementation, scale, and sustainability. Sustainability and scale do not emerge automatically from strong research and program design. It depends on whether the teams have the capacity, support, and infrastructure to navigate complexity over the long term.
In KBHN’s case, embedding implementation training into its funding model created shared expectations and shared tools across projects. The peer community that emerged reinforced those skills beyond formal coursework.
For TCI, partnerships like this one reflect an approach to implementation support that centres the people doing the work as the leaders of change. This approach prioritizes shared leadership and distributed expertise, equipping teams with tools, language, and skills to determine what works in their environments for their programs. The work is not positioned as an add-on, but as part of the infrastructure that enables programs to function more reliably.
As KBHN continues to support new cohorts, the effects of this approach extend beyond individual projects. A growing portion of the network now approaches implementation as a discipline rather than an afterthought.
For funders seeking more consistent outcomes across diverse settings, building implementation capacity across their network may be one of the most strategic investments they can make. In fields where outcomes depend on consistency, coordination, and adaptation, the shift towards building implementation capacity may be as important as the programs themselves.
