Cross-Site Evaluation of the Family Connection Discretionary Grants

Family Connection grants aimed to help reconnect family members with children in foster care or at risk of entering it.

JBA conducted a cross-site evaluation of the Family Connection grant projects to examine their effectiveness. The projects were organized into clusters implementing specific interventions, such as residential family treatment and family group decision making. Guided by logic models, we evaluated process and outcomes for each cluster at the parent, child, family, organization, and service delivery system levels. The process evaluation focused on stages of program maturation from design and implementation to maintenance and sustainability, while the outcome evaluation examined the impact on children, parents, and families.

The evaluation collected data on outcomes related to safety, permanency, and well-being and areas such as integration with local systems, collaboration, service expansion and enhancement, service utilization, cost effectiveness, and sustainability. We also provided technical assistance to grantees conducting site-specific evaluations to improve processes and services and to demonstrate linkages between activities and outcomes. The results were synthesized to develop conclusions and recommendations.