| Session Title: The Adolescent Family Life Care Demonstration Project: How Context Matters When Evaluating Programs for Adolescent Parents and Their Children |
| Multipaper Session 561 to be held in Suwannee 17 on Friday, Nov 13, 1:40 PM to 3:10 PM |
| Sponsored by the Human Services Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Dana Keener, ICF Macro, dana.c.keener@macrointernational.com |
| Abstract: The Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs (OAPP) in the Department of Health and Human Services currently funds 31 Adolescent Family Life Care Demonstration Projects (Care Projects) across the nation in a variety of settings. Care Projects serve pregnant and parenting adolescents, their children, male partners, and family members to prevent repeat pregnancy, increase immunization adherence, and increase educational achievement among adolescent mothers. Every Care Project is required to conduct a rigorous independent evaluation of its program to contribute to the growing evidence-base of what works in serving young mothers and their children. Likewise, each Care Project, and its evaluation, faces unique challenges and opportunities that are influenced by the setting in which is operates and the population it serves. This session will describe a sample of Care Projects operating in a range of settings and the implications of those settings on the evaluation process. |
| Overview of the Adolescent Family Life Care Demonstration Program |
| Dana Keener, ICF Macro, dana.c.keener@macrointernational.com |
| Alicia Richmond, United States Department of Health and Human Services, alicia.richmond@hhs.gov |
| Adolescent Family Life Care Demonstration Projects (Care Projects) are funded by the Office of Adolescent Pregnancy Programs to serve pregnant and parenting adolescents, their children, male partners, and family members. All Care Projects share common goals to reduce the number of repeat teen pregnancies, improve infant immunization, and increase educational attainment of adolescent parents. Every program that receives grant funds to implement a Care Project is required to include an external evaluation component. Rigorous evaluation is highly valued and supported by the funder via grant funds, training and technical assistance. The intent of the evaluation component is to reveal findings that can serve as a basis for designing future programs and to share lessons learned across projects for program improvement. This session will provide an overview of the Care program, including the range of services provided across projects and the types of settings in which the projects are implemented. |
| Challenges and Advantages of Evaluating Medically-Based Social Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents |
| Carol Lewis, University of Texas at Austin, carolmlewis@gmail.com |
| Megan Scarborough, University of Texas at Austin, megan@mail.utexas.edu |
| Context and setting provide challenges and advantages in evaluating a medically-based, social services collaborative program that provides intensive case management for pregnant and parenting adolescents. The People's Community Clinic, a medical home for limited income, uninsured families in Travis County, Texas, has been an ideal setting for recruiting pregnant adolescents into case management, especially once clinic personnel understood how the program complemented clients' primary care. The medical home also provides an avenue for retaining clients in services. However, recruiting participants for the evaluation is more challenging due to time constraints among medical personnel and lack of understanding about evaluation among young, non-English speaking clients. Another asset of the program is collaboration between four agencies that meet weekly and work to coordinate case management, counseling, and medical services for these clients. The downside to the multi-agency collaboration is lack of name recognition for the program and added complexity for the evaluation. |
| Evaluating Services for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents in a School Setting |
| Diane Mitschke, University of Texas at Arlington, dianemitschke@uta.edu |
| Holli Slater, University of Texas at Arlington, holli.slater@mavs.uta.edu |
| Tori Sisk, Arlington Independent School District, tsisk@aisd.net |
| Healthy Families: Tomorrow's Future is a school-based comprehensive support program for adolescent pregnant and parenting students in Arlington, Texas. A mixed method evaluation compares participants who are randomly assigned to the intervention or comparison groups and complete pre and post assessments comprised of the AFL Core Evaluation as well as a Developmental Assets Inventory and Happiness Scale. Participants also complete a follow-up assessment when their child is six months of age. Because the program is school-based, both the delivery of the program itself and the implementation of the evaluation face numerous challenges as well as several strengths. This presentation will address challenges and strengths associated with recruitment, obtaining informed consent and assent, retention, and longitudinal data collection in a school-based setting. |
| The Choctaw Nation's Adolescent Family Life Care Program: Unique Challenges and Opportunities |
| Judith McDaniel, McDaniel Bonham Consulting, dkrelations@aol.com |
| Zoe E Leimgruebler, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, drzoe1@cox.net |
| Angela Dancer, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, angelad@choctawnation.com |
| The Choctaw Nation's Adolescent Family Life (AFL) Care staff conducts semi-monthly home visits year-round for pregnant/parenting teenagers who live throughout the Tribe's 11,000 square-mile southeastern Oklahoma service area. The purpose of the program is to ensure that teen clients: (1) access needed health care services, (2) succeed in writing and achieving their personal goals, and (3) receive home-based instruction in prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care; positive Indian parenting skills; and relationship skills. Annual quasi-experimental studies compare client progress with a comparison group matched on all variables except AFL participation. The 2008 analysis revealed statistically significant differences in clients' completion of their written goals, learning progress in all curriculum areas, participation of their babies' fathers in home-based visits, receipt of information on how to access needed health and human services, and the Choctaw Nation's success in helping clients improve relationships with their family members and babies' fathers. |
| Evaluating a Pregnant and Parenting Program for Homeless Youth |
| Elizabeth Calhoun, University of Illinois at Chicago, ecalhoun@uic.edu |
| The Night Ministry's program serves youth who are homeless or precariously housed and pregnant and/or parenting. This care demonstration project holistically serves pregnant and or parenting adolescents ages 13-18 within Chicago's city limits with interventions designed to address housing, strengthening support/family systems, and life skills including education, employment, parenting, and subsequent pregnancies. The evaluation plan is conducting a two-arm, quasi-experimental trial using repeated measures comparing the groups on rates of safe and stable housing, repeat pregnancy, social support, parenting skills, job readiness/attainment and school retention/graduation. The evaluation lessons learned will address the strengths and challenges associated with recruitment, consent, and longitudinal data collection with homeless youth. |
| Serving Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents in a Community-Based Setting: Implications for Evaluation |
| Dana Keener, ICF Macro, dana.c.keener@macrointernational.com |
| Tina Gaudiano, Middle Tyger Community Center, tina.gaudiano@spart5.net |
| Carolyn Turner, Middle Tyger Community Center, carolyn.turner@spart5.net |
| The Middle Tyger Community Center (MTCC) serves a rural population of adolescent parents and their children in Lyman, South Carolina. The program provides a comprehensive array of services to participants including weekly parenting classes, monthly home visits, monthly case management sessions, daily early childhood education, and semi-annual family forums. Although the program is community-based, it relies heavily on partnerships with the school district and other community agencies in order to reach its target population. This presentation will focus on the challenges and opportunities with implementing and evaluating a community-based program for adolescent mothers and their children. Specifically, strategies for recruiting and retaining participants, collecting evaluation data, and tracking services will be discussed. |