Projects
An Outcome Evaluation of the ACT Parents Raising Safe Kids Program
The goal of this collaborative project, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Adults and Children Together (ACT) Against Violence Parents Raising Safe Kids program as an economical primary prevention intervention for child maltreatment. Developed by the American Psychological Association (APA), in collaboration with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), ACT is a national anti-violence initiative that emphasizes the critical role that parents and other adults can play in providing an environment for young children that helps protect them from violence and injury. The overarching goals of ACT are (1) to make early violence prevention a central and ongoing part of the community and (2) to educate adults about their important role in creating healthy and safe environments for children. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (representing the College of Health and Human Services and the College of Education) coordinates project activities, which include data collection across three community service agencies implementing the ACT program for parents at varying levels of risk for child maltreatment. In Year 1, which served as a pilot for the study protocol, data were collected at Pillars, a comprehensive social service agency serving the greater Chicago area. In Year 2 of this three-year project, two additional data collection sites will be added: Mary Immaculate Family Focus in Newport News, Virginia, and Jewish Family Services in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The American Psychological Association is also be an essential partner to the project, providing technical assistance to the study sites and coordinating biannual meetings of the ACT Research Team. In order to leverage the expertise of APA members who have contributed to the development of the ACT program, APA also convened an ACT Advisory Board, which is comprised of content and program experts, many whom have been involved in preliminary evaluations of the program, as well as planning this outcome evaluation.
Evaluation of Alexander Youth Network Intensive In-home Services
The Institute for Social Capital is serving as the evaluator for Alexander Youth Network’s Therapeutic Foster Care and Intensive In-Home Services. These family-centered programs are designed to treat children who traditionally have been served in Level III residential settings. The weight of research, both private and government-funded, indicates that those behavioral therapies that are most effective in creating systemic change are moving from residential to community-based treatment models. However, this evaluation represents one of the earliest efforts to evaluate child outcomes associated with intensive in-home services.
Projects in Partnership with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS)
For a number of years, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools have worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to administer the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to high school and middle school students. As part of their participation in this initiative, CMS receives a standard set of data analyses from CDC. For example, in 2007, YRBS data evidenced that 27.6% of high school (HS) students reported symptoms of depression (27% in 2005) and 11.5% considered suicide. In the 2007 MS (Middle School) YRBS, 22% reported feeling sad and hopeless for more than two weeks; 18% thought of killing themselves. In an effort to utilize these data more fully to inform local community needs, CMS has contracted with the Institute for Social Capital to conduct additional data analyses and to tie these results with other sources of data on CMS students. Data from the 2008-2009 administration of the YRBS in middle and high schools will be available in Fall, 2009.
Evaluation of CMS Asthma Education Initiative
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Asthma Education Program (AEP) is a collaborative partnership between CMS and the Mecklenburg County Health Department (MCHD), School Health Division, supported by a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The AEP created strong administrative support for asthma education in 16 pilot asthma select schools by developing School Health Teams (SHT) within the Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP) model. SHT members at each school represent the eight components of school health (i.e., health education, physical education, nutrition, school environment, family/community involvement, staff wellness and counseling, psychology and social work). This team approach has resulted in the development and implementation of a broad range of policy changes and educational and skill-based programs designed to create safe and supportive learning environments for students with asthma aimed at allowing children to manage their asthma successfully in school, at home, and in the community. The current grant (through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) provides funding to CMS for five years to continue the AEP’s progress, to strengthen and to expand its initiatives, and to extend its reach to all CMS schools, students, staff, families, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community. The Institute for Social Capital is providing evaluation consultation and data analysis support in connection with this initiative. As part of its work, ISC will examine specific student outcomes related to attendance, academic performance, the number of asthma action plans, access to in-school respiratory care, and number of emergency room visits.
Evaluation of Parent University
In Fall, 2008, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) launched Parent University, an innovative, collaborative initiative designed to reach out to and to engage CMS parents, with a special emphasis on the underserved. Parent University is comprised of unique course offerings, symposia, and workshops in four areas: Parenting Awareness, Helping Your Child Learn in the 21st Century, Health and Wellness, and Personal Growth and Development. The initiative has elicited a tremendous response from the community, with more than 2,700 parents, teachers, and administrators attending 56 course offerings (representing 31 different courses) in its first semester of operation. Parent University now seeks to develop and to implement a scientific program of outcomes evaluation. To guide this effort, CMS has secured the services of the Institute for Social Capital. The Research Team has worked with Parent University and its contractors to enhance initial, pilot data collection systems and procedures, including the electronic parent registration system and course sign-in procedures currently in place. By maximizing both the quality and quantity of data collected during the course of standard program operations, Parent University can most effectively and efficiently secure data to inform outcome evaluation moving forward. Beginning in the 2009-2010 academic year, a standard set of baseline data are being collected for all Parent University participants, allowing the Research Team to examine who is participating and how patterns of participation differ. Sample questions to be addressed include: what are the characteristics of parents served by Parent University; what are the characteristics of parents who attended multiple courses?; and what are the characteristics of parents who attended specific types of courses? The evaluation is also employing a modified pre-test/posttest single group design to track the impact of Parent University on parent engagement and involvement.
Bullying Prevention Initiative
Researchers from the ISC and Department of Social Work are evaluating secondary analysis of data previously collected from CMS 6th graders by CMS to help inform them of their Bullying Prevention Initiative Program.
Duke Project: Implementation of a Program of Outcomes Research for Residential Treatment Centers for Children & Youth
Researchers with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Institute for Social Capital (ISC), working in collaboration with the Children and Family Services Association – North Carolina (CFSA-NC), the South Carolina Association of Children’s Homes and Family Services (SCACHFS), and their member agencies launched this research initiative in January, 2007. The goal of this project is to implement a successful outcomes research strategy across residential treatment agencies in order to strengthen the current system of care and to enhance the quality of programs and services for children and youth. Agencies participating in this research are those providing residential treatment services, broadly defined to include foster care (including family, specialized, and therapeutic foster care), residential group care (low, medium/moderate, and high management levels), residential treatment, and multipurpose residential care. A set of core data identified by the project partners is currently being collected from youth (ages 8-17) in participating programs, their parents (when available), and program staff. These data will be analyzed to provide a detailed description of the clinical, behavioral, and demographic characteristics of the children being served by participating agencies and to examine how they progress during care. The impact of potential risk and protective factors on child outcomes will also be examined. Among the outcomes being explored are children’s behavior; anxiety level; general level of functioning; coping behaviors; self-esteem; and health-related quality of life. During the first two years of the study, data were collected from a total of 455 youth across 40 participating agencies.
Seigle Avenue Partners Freedom School Initiative Outcome Evaluation
Seigle Avenue Partners secured the services of the Institute for Social Capital to implement a program of outcomes evaluation to inform their Freedom School Initiative. Freedom Schools engage children in grades K-8 in a six-week summer program designed to prevent the “learning loss” that students typically experience over those months when school is not in session, as well as to have a positive impact on children’s character development, leadership, and community involvement. Current evaluation efforts are focused specifically on the program’s primary goal of enhancing academic performance for participating children. More specifically, this outcome evaluation is assessing the extent to which the program meets the following objectives: (1) to increase children’s “love” of reading; (2) to increase children’s reading performance; and (3) to maintain or to increase children’s reading level from the end of the school year until the beginning of the proceeding school year.
The Charlotte Post Initiative: Reducing Academic Disparities for African American Youth
Founded in 1878, The Charlotte Post is the oldest minority-owned, locally published newspaper directed at the Charlotte African American community. Building on its work of honoring and providing scholarships to outstanding African American high school seniors, in 2007, the Post Foundation approached the Institute for Social Capital to partner in its efforts to enhance school success for all African American youth in the community. In the initial phase of the project, ISC researchers examined longitudinal data from African American students in those schools identified by CMS as the most challenged in the district, along with a group of high schools with similar demographic patterns. Results suggested that many local African American students are struggling academically as early as third grade and that this pattern of poor performance continues throughout the school years. Accordingly, the Post Foundation is currently engaged in identifying partners to a new initiative to provide support for its first class of Post Scholars, providing these rising third grade students with an array of services to enhance their academic achievement. For example, the first Post Scholars participated in Freedom Schools in Summer, 2009. As the project moves forward, ISC will continue to assist the Post Foundation in taking a scientific data-based approach to identifying a strategic plan of action and evaluating student outcomes.
Tracking Smart Start-funded Children in CMS
In 2009, the Institute for Social Capital began working with Smart Start of Mecklenberg County and its contractors to identify appropriate outcome measures for children who have participated in Smart Start-funded preschool programs. Although the initial focus is on the information that can be gained from current CMS data on former preschool participants, ISC is also providing consultation on and developing a plan for collecting additional outcome data for current and future participants. This plan will be implemented in Year 2 of the project. It is anticipated that ISC will also work with Smart Start and its contractors to develop a plan for sustaining data collection and outcome evaluation efforts in the future.
Evaluation of the Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (WISH)
The Institute for Social Capital, Inc is collaborating with Lutheran Family Services to evaluate the effectiveness of the Workforce Initiative for Supportive Housing (WISH) as an economical intervention for homeless families with children. The WISH Program is a faith-led permanent supportive housing solution whereby selected families are given a defined set of “steps” which can empower them from homelessness to self-sufficiency. The evaluation will focus on documenting outcomes for the children served through WISH.