The Need for Self-Evaluation
An explicit premise of Family to Family is that the planning, implementation, and evaluation of child welfare policy and practices have to be guided by clear and specific goals, and that progress toward those goals requires good performance data. Unfortunately, in spite of the volume of data collected about children in out-of-home care, child welfare managers often are unable to provide quick and reliable responses to questions posed by policymakers and the public. Therefore, a key component of the initiative was an effort to build capacity for "self-evaluation" among grantee states and communities.
What is "Self-Evaluation"?
Self-evaluation in Family to Family entailed three types of effort: first, to build databases that tracked children through their experiences in out-of-home care by drawing on data already being collected in routine program operations; second, to compile information about children in out-of-home care from a variety of agencies that serve families and children (mental health, special education, juvenile justice, etc.); and third, to build "self-evaluation teams" that would pull together information on an ongoing basis, and more importantly, use it to improve child welfare policy and practice.
How was this tool applied in Family to Family?
With support from the evaluation team and other technical assistance providers, and with their own diligent effort, Family to Family grantees developed tools that help them plan, manage, and evaluate child welfare policies, programs, and practices. The first set of tools describes the process of gathering and interpreting information and applying it to change policy and practice. The second set offers analysis techniques being used in many sites, including longitudinal analysis, population profiles, caseload forecasting, and desktop mapping. The third set of tools describes adaptations that produced more useful information and yielded insights about ways to design new systems to allow better planning and evaluation.
What did we learn from these applications?
Participants in Family to Family gained insight into the experience of children in out-of-home care and into the operation of local systems that serve families and children. Working in self-evaluation teams also helped build new relationships among program staff, analysts, data managers, and other stakeholders.
What you need to get started:
You can begin by assembling a team in your state or community and assessing your capability to carry out the types of self-evaluation undertaken in Family to Family.
What you need for full implementation:
Self-evaluation requires specific commitments of fiscal and human resources. Team meetings require time from a variety of staff, from top management to frontline workers, as well as from stakeholders outside the child welfare agency. Compiling and analyzing the types of data used in Family to Family requires statistical and mapping software that most agencies would have to purchase.
How to find out more:
resources, examples, references:
Contact John Mattingly of the Annie E. Casey Foundation for further information. The following persons also can answer questions about self-evaluation: Lynn Usher, School of Social Work, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 919.962.6496, Fax: 919.962.1486; or Stan Schneider,
Metis Associates, Inc., New York, New York, 212.425.8833, Fax: 212.480.2176.