Comprehensive Family Assessments to
Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

The Center will partner with the Alamance County Department of Social Services to develop, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based model for conducting comprehensive family assessments, based on the Comprehensive Family Assessment Guidelines (CFA). The Alamance County Department of Social Services was awarded one of five national grants to demonstrate the use of Comprehensive Family Assessments to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes.

This project will develop CFA family engagement and caseworker visit policies, protocols, and procedures that will be implemented with a pilot team and subsequently a randomly selected intervention team. With assistance from the Duke Addictions Program, agency staff will also be trained and coached to utilize the “Transtheoretical Stages of Change” and “Motivational Interviewing” to develop partnerships and engage with families in the assessment and case planning process.

This project will utilize a rigorous evaluation approach to: 1) Assess the implementation of the CFA process with the pilot and intervention teams, and the linkages between the child-serving systems helping to ensure that identified needs of children and families are met; 2) Measure how the practice of comprehensive family assessments improves over time; 3) Utilizing a randomized trial, examine how the CFA process affects key outcomes related to the safety, permanency and well-being of children and families; and 4) Establish a replicable model for conducting comprehensive family assessments by producing detailed procedures and materials based on the evaluation.

PRESENTATIONS:

Snyder, E. (2007, November). Developing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Comprehensive Family Assessment in Alamance County, NC. Talk presented at the 2007 Fall Comprehensive Family Assessment Grantee Meeting, Washington, DC.