Implementation of a Program of Outcomes Research Across Residential Treatment Settings for Children and Youth: Year 2 by Sharon G. Portwood, JD, PhD; A. Suzanne Boyd, PhD, ACSW, CMSW; Shãnna Fox Oakley, MSPH, CHES, Darcy Wallus, MA, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC

This presentation, an update of progress during the last quarter of Year 1 and Year 2 on a project presented during the 2007 CHARPP conference, will feature research sponsored by the Duke Endowment and conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Institute for Social Capital, Inc., working in collaboration with the South Carolina Association of Children's Homes and Family Services (SCACHFS), the Children and Family Service Association - North Carolina (CFSA-NC), and their member agencies.. The presentation will provide a brief overview of the process of developing and implementing this project, which adheres to a participatory action research (PAR) model, with an emphasis on implementation with Cohort 2 and Cohort 3 agencies. Following an overview of PAR and other guiding principles, the presenters will describe the collaborative activities involved in (1) developing a set of core outcomes (that have the investment and support of all or almost all of the member agencies) that can be collected, aggregated, and analyzed across agencies from both associations, and (2) implementing a two-tier, standardized outcome data collection protocol across participating agencies, focusing on Cohort 2 and Cohort 3 agencies. In addition, the preliminary results from analyses of Cohort 1 and Cohort 2 (20 participating agencies) outcome data relative to potential risk and protective factors (e.g., demographic characteristics, history of child welfare involvement, medical issues) will be presented.