Selected Completed Projects
Family Integrated Treatment Court Evaluation
The Family Integrated Treatment Court was created to work with parents and children who have become involved with the Jefferson County Division of Children, Youth, and Families as a result of child abuse or neglect that is directly related to the parent’s substance abuse. FIT Court is based on a National Drug Court model and takes pride in incorporating Family Drug Court best practices. It is a voluntary, family-based program within the Dependency and Neglect System. The FIT Court is a collaborative effort that offers families the support, services, and treatment necessary to assist parents in establishing and maintaining sobriety while providing safety for their children. FIT Court strives to empower families to look beyond compliance and abstinence, encouraging them to make a commitment to a lifestyle of recovery.
The Social Work Research Center (SWRC) was contracted by the Jefferson County Division of Children, Youth & Families and Adult Protective Services (CYFAP) in partnership with Children and Family Futures (CFF) to conduct an independent and rigorous study of the Family Integrated Treatment (FIT) Court program. This study was undertaken as a major component of the FIT Court’s Prevention and Family Recovery (PFR) initiative, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and administered by CFF.
The overarching goals of the multi-year study were to determine if FIT Court achieves better child welfare outcomes for families, and whether improved outcomes help offset the initial higher cost of the intensive and comprehensive family-centered services provided by FIT Court.
Colorado Congregate Care Resiliency Opportunity Project
Seven counties (Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas Eagle, Jefferson, and Larimer) received a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Grant in 2016 to expand their trauma-informed child welfare practice. All seven counties are working within their local communities to address barriers to service, communication needs, infrastructure development, and funding.
The purpose of the Colorado Children’s Congregate Care Resiliency Opportunity Project was to significantly reduce the number of children residing in congregate care. The primary goals were to: a) develop community trauma-informed resiliency based interventions for families to prevent children from entering congregate care, b) create new trauma-informed strategies to expedite the discharge of children currently in congregate care to reduce their length of stay and/or return to the community, and c) increase familial resiliency to prevent children from returning to congregate care once returned to the community.
The Social Work Research Center conducted a process evaluation designed to: (1) To monitor program fidelity and training implementation, and (2) To track infrastructure, prevention, and promotion performance. The main goal of the outcome evaluation was to examine whether the community trauma-informed resiliency-based intervention produces the desired outcomes at all four levels targeted (i.e., system, service, caseworker, and child). Child outcomes were compared across counties to investigate demonstration project effects across different locales. Efforts were made to examine outcomes across key characteristics of children (e.g., demographics, trauma history) to investigate which particular aspects of the intervention works best for whom.
Wendy's Wonderful Kids (WWK)
The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption launched the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids® (WWK) program in 2004 to increase adoptions from foster care across the United States. Through the program, the Foundation provides funding and establishes innovative co-investment partnerships with states to support the hiring of adoption professionals, known as recruiters, who serve the hardest-to-place children in foster care. That includes youth ages 9 and older, children with special needs, and siblings. Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters use an evidence-based, child-focused recruitment model to find the right family for every child. In collaboration with the Foundation, the Colorado Department of Human Services and participating counties, Raise the Future employs Wendy’s Wonderful Kids recruiters, known as Youth Connections Advocates in Colorado, to help achieve legal permanency for the state’s longest-waiting children in foster care.
SWRC, in collaboration with the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, conducted a rigorous evaluation of the WWK program in Colorado from 2019-2022. The evaluation team used propensity score matching (PSM) to compare outcomes for children/youth with complex permanency needs, some enrolled in Colorado’s WWK program and some in a matched sample. In addition to the PSM, SWRC conducted interviews and focus groups and administered surveys with Youth Connections Advocates and county partners implementing the program; analyzed model implementation and timeliness; conducted an in-depth case record review; and administered the Youth Connections Scale to children/youth receiving WWK services to assess changes in relational permanency.
Homeward Alliance
Homeward Alliance engaged SWRC to assist with understanding the needs of families with children who experience housing insecurity and homelessness in Larimer County and the gaps in and access to assistance. Housing instability and homelessness occur within specific and complex layers of community context that include national and local policies, resources, economies, and social-cultural influences. Family circumstances, history, and support systems interact with our community contexts in ways that provide support and present complications for vulnerable families in need. This assessment revealed aspects of family needs and gaps in resources from the perspectives families who experience housing insecurity and homelessness, along with front-line staff and management in agencies and organizations providing services and support to families.
The evaluation included five components: (1) individual interviews with parents/caregivers; (2) focus groups with parents/caregivers; (3) interviews with agency or program management; (4) focus groups with front-line staff in agencies and programs serving children and families; and (5) an online survey conducted with agency leadership/management. Key considerations throughout the evaluation included the complexity of family homelessness, prevention vs intervention frameworks, and promising practices for working with families.
Innovate Colorado
Innovate Colorado was a collaborative, cross-jurisdiction child welfare and law enforcement program that aimed to comprehensively address human trafficking in Colorado and provide services to victims and survivors with a focus on children and youth. The program’s long-term vision was to prevent involvement with, and significantly reduce the impact of child/youth human trafficking by achieving full implementation of comprehensive, multi-systemic human trafficking collaborations at the state level and in communities throughout Colorado.
SWRC employed a developmental evaluation design. The focus of DE is to understand a program in context while providing timely data that stakeholders can use in strategic decision-making as they respond to dynamic conditions overtime. The evaluation included a process evaluation and an outcome evaluation. The process evaluation was comprised of four components: 1) Regional Human Trafficking Specialists Model; 2) Regional Human Trafficking Specialists Site Projects; 3) Colorado Department of Human Services/Division of Child Welfare and Colorado Department of Public Safety/Division of Criminal Justice Workshops related to human trafficking; and 4) Collaboration Assessment. The outcome evaluation was comprised of three components: 1) State and National Hotline Trends; 2) Law Enforcement Incidence Measures; and 3) Child Welfare Comparative Analysis.
Campbell Collaboration
The Campbell Collaboration, C2, is a network of researchers, practitioners, and others working with the development, maintenance, and dissemination of systematic reviews of the effects of efforts and measures within the areas of social work, prison, and probation services and education.
With funding from SFI Campbell, which was the first regional center in the Campbell Collaboration, SWRC completed a co-registered Campbell and Cochrane systematic review of kinship care. The purpose of the review was to compare children removed from the home for maltreatment and subsequently placed in foster or kinship care on child welfare outcomes. This systematic review received the Leonard E. Gibbs award for the finest systematic review published in 2007-2008.
In 2014, SWRC completed an update of the systematic review, which now includes 102 studies on kinship care. The updated systematic review also received the Leonard E. Gibbs award for the finest systematic review published in 2014-2015.
Colorado Consortium on Differential Response
The Colorado Consortium on Differential Response represents an organizational shift in child welfare agencies in Colorado based on a series of infrastructure changes within the organizations as well as a deepened and enhanced social work practice set for all staff. In 2010, five counties in Colorado implemented a dual-track response system with an investigation response track and a family assessment response track. Investigative responses involved fact-finding to determine a preponderance of the evidence as to whether or not child maltreatment occurred as alleged. As the non-investigative track, FAR did not require or allow the worker to determine a preponderance of the evidence as to whether or not child maltreatment occurred as alleged. Only cases of lower and moderate risk screened-in allegations of abuse or neglect were eligible for the FAR track.
For both the FAR and IR tracks, the services provided include engagement strategies that assist in the assessment of safety, risk, family needs, and family strengths. The Social Work Research Center, in partnership with Westat, designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the processes, outcomes, and costs of differential response in Colorado. Specifically, child safety, family well-being, family engagement, caseworker satisfaction, community buy-in, and costs were evaluated.
Completed Reports (available upon request)
- Program Evaluation of the Colorado Consortium on Differential Response (2014)*
- Appendices – Program Evaluation of the Colorado Consortium on Differential Response (2014)*
Colorado IV-E Waiver Evaluation
Colorado’s IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project seeks to improve child and family outcomes through five primary interventions — family engagement, trauma-informed assessments, trauma-focused treatment, Permanency Roundtables, and kinship supports. Each of these primary interventions encompasses multiple specific practice options.
The evaluation assesses whether the availability of flexible Title IV-E funds has enabled the state, through its counties, to make changes in service delivery and expenditure patterns to ultimately improve safety, permanency, and well-being outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system.
In partnership with the lead evaluator, Human Services Research Institute, and Chapin Hall, the Social Work Research Center will implement a comprehensive process, outcome, and cost evaluation for the Colorado Department of Human Services.