Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Roundtable: The Transition from Dependency to Adulthood: Evaluator and Program Partnerships to Build Evidence of Effective Interventions

(Family and Child Policy)

Using the context of programs designed to assist youth transitioning from the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to independence, staff from two nationally recognized transition age youth programs and their external evaluators will discuss the ways in which program and evaluator partnerships can generate new research evidence and possibly boost returns on investment in evaluation. Research finds that former foster youth experience significantly worse educational attainment, employment, earnings, delinquency and arrest, and pregnancy rates in comparison to the general population.¹ Inspired in part by these research findings, child welfare legislation at the federal and state levels have expanded opportunities for youth transitioning from dependency systems to independence.² Recent research and policy changes have contributed to increasing interest in building evidence about “what works” to help older youth transition to adulthood from the child welfare and, in some instances, juvenile justice systems. In turn, programs that work with transition age youth are charged with the seemingly impossible task of providing a myriad of services to address outcomes across multiple domains including housing, employment, education, substance use, mental and physical health, permanent connections to caring adults, and criminal justice. The roundtable will explore the process by which programs and evaluators prepare for and execute rigorous evaluation and the challenges and obstacles they face preparing for evaluation in a field supported by limited knowledge about effective programs and services. Discussants from the programs will begin with a description of their programs and will briefly describe their preparation process for rigorous external evaluation. The external evaluators will share their experiences in developing an understanding of the programs’ history and assessing the programs’ internal and external contexts, program model and implementation strategies, measures, and outcomes. All of the discussants will be prepared to interact with participants about their experience assessing: • The impact of the local landscape including local policy, stakeholder engagement, local programs and services, and funding • The relevance of multiple outcomes across a variety of domains • Internal and external interests in the evaluation process • The appropriate balance between program model stability and continuous improvement • The role of existing evidence in determining next steps • Risk, including the expense and potential benefits, when making the leap to engage in high stakes evaluation. Throughout the roundtable discussion, the discussants will continually return to the theme that research and evaluation can help government and policymakers by evaluating programs that are well-prepared to engage in rigorous evaluation. ¹Courtney, M.E., Dworsky, A., Lee, J.S., & Raap, M. (2010). Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Outcomes at ages 23 and 24. Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.chapinhall.org/sites/default/files/Midwest_Study_Age_23_24.pdf ²In 2008, the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110-351) was signed into Law Under this law, states and child welfare agencies may claim federal Title IV-E foster care funds for eligible foster youth until their 21st birthday.