The Children's Receiving Center: An Examination of Key Short and Mid-range Outcomes by Andrew Grover, MPH, Research and Development Director at ChristieCare, Portland, OR; and Linda Newton-Curtis, M.S. and Jim White, Ph.D., Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services, Portland State University, Portland, OR

The Children's Receiving Center is an emergency shelter program in Multnomah County, Oregon. It provides a safe and comfortable place for child welfare caseworkers and police to place children who are removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect. On average, children stay in the program for 5 to 7 days to allow caseworkers and others to identify the most appropriate placement. While there, professionally trained staff help support the children through the crisis, nursing staff evaluate their medical needs, and a variety of other screenings are available. In addition to these benefits, the program is designed to keep sibling groups together regardless of the size of the group, their genders, or the age range between them. In this study, evaluators used a matched comparison design to investigate the differences this program made when compared to the usual and customary practice of placing children directly into emergency foster placements at the time of removal. Several positive outcomes were identified which will be presented in this talk.