News Archives
NPC Publishes Integrated Results of Maryland Drug Court Evaluation
NPC Research has published the integrated results from a 2007–2009 evaluation of Maryland drug courts that included process, cost, and outcome studies. The study provided the opportunity to look at areas of strength and challenge across the state. The results identified many areas that programs can continue to work on to enhance program practices and increase their effectiveness in the years to come. This body of work gives Maryland’s Office of Problem-Solving Courts one of the largest sets of drug court evaluations in the United States. View report. Learn more about this project.
NPC Completes Alaska Youth Competency Assessment and Strength-based Practices Training and Research Project
This project involved eight trainings at six juvenile justice facilities in Alaska on the Youth Competency Assessment and Strength-based Practices. Social climate survey data (using the Correctional Institutions Environment Scale [CIES]) were collected from participating sites on a voluntary basis (six sites contributed pre data and two sites contributed post data, 6 months after the training), which were summarized at the site and state levels. Results of the CIES surveys include:
- Residents had lower ratings of social climate in their facility than staff, both prior to and after the trainings
- Both residents and staff rated their facilities as having more positive social climate 6 months after the trainings than before
- On average, residents rated their facilities higher on social climate than the average of residents who use this same tool across the country
- Resident scores tended to show greater positive change over time than staff scores
Learn more about this project.
Major Research Grant Awarded to Study Oregon’s Healthy Start Program
NPC Research, in collaboration with the Oregon Commission on Children and Families, has been awarded a 5-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, one of only five such grants awarded nationwide. The nearly $1 million federal grant will be used to conduct a randomized study and cost-benefit analysis of child maltreatment outcomes for Oregon’s Healthy Start program, a statewide voluntary family support and parent education home visiting program for high-risk first-birth families.
Dr. Beth Green, former president of NPC Research, said, “This project reflects both national interest in further rigorous research on the Healthy Families America (HFA) model and the hard work that has gone on in Oregon to provide and document a well-implemented HFA system.” Healthy Families America is an evidence-based home visiting model. Oregon is one of only six states in the nation that meets the high standards for full accreditation as a multi-site state system from HFA.
The study will look at the impact of Healthy Start on documented incidents of child maltreatment and will conduct a detailed cost-benefit study of the program. The study’s results could significantly advance the current debate about the efficacy of the home visitation model, particularly in terms of child abuse outcomes. It will also be the first detailed cost-analysis of child welfare and child maltreatment program costs, which will provide policymakers with measureable cost benefits of Oregon’s Healthy Start program.
NPC Study Shows Continuing Efficacy of Healthy Start Services Demonstrated by Low Maltreatment Rates of Families Served by the Program
NPC Research recently published a report showing the impact of Oregon’s Health Start program in reducing child maltreatment. Results for the 2007-08 fiscal year showed the largest difference in maltreatment rates between Healthy Start families and the Oregon general population ever documented by the evaluation. Importantly, this difference was concentrated among the higher risk Intensive Service families, who had an overall maltreatment rate of only 13 per 1000, compared with 25 per 1000 in the Oregon general population of 0- to 3-year-olds. Maltreatment rates for Healthy Start higher risk, Intensive Service families dropped below the rate of maltreatment for the general 0-3 population for the third year in a row. Given the high-risk status of the Intensive Service group, this finding provides the strongest support to date for the efficacy of Healthy Start services in preventing maltreatment on those most at risk. View the Maltreatment report>
Learn more about the latest Healthy Start evaluation by visiting the following links to access the 2007-08 Status Report and related items:
Report | Executive Summary | Appendices | Service Implementation Fact Sheet | Outcomes Fact Sheet
Collaborative Study Launched to Identify Return on Investments Associated with Oregon’s Relief Nurseries' Postive Outcomes
NPC Research is partnering with Family Building Blocks (Salem) and the Children's Relief Nursery (Portland) to develop and implement a 3-year Community-Based, Participatory Research (CBPR) project to begin to answer the question: What are the long-term returns on investments that can be expected from the Relief Nurseries? Funded by the Northwest Health Foundation, the project will collect information that will be used to form the foundation for legislative and community advocacy to expand support for the Relief Nursery model across Oregon. The study follows an evaluation by NPC showing that Oregon's Relief Nursery services are effective in reducing family risk factors, promoting family well-being, improving the quality of parenting, and reducing the level of involvement of families with child welfare services. More>
Relief Nurseries Improve Child Welfare Outcomes and Promote Literacy
NPC has released the Year 2 report on the evaluation of Oregon's Relief Nurseries. One of the key goals of the Relief Nurseries is to reduce families’ level of involvement with the child welfare system, by working to reduce risk factors for child maltreatment, and helping to stabilize families so that children can live safely with their parents. Relief Nursery children were more likely than children statewide to be reunified with their parents. The evaluation also found that Relief Nurseries improved parenting among parents who received services for 1 year. Parents in Relief Nurseries also showed a 117% increase in how often they read to their young children, a critical activity that provides the foundation for later language and literacy outcomes. Learn more by visiting the following links:Report | Executive Summary | Key Findings
NPC Evaluation of Healthy Start Shows Reduction in Child Maltreatment
The evaluation of the Oregon's Healthy Start program, the state's largest child abuse prevention program, has documented that families served by Healthy Start have a reduced rate of child maltreatment. This is true even in the face of escalating maltreatment rates in Oregon and nationally. For example, since 2003, the child abuse rates for children birth through age 2 who are not in Healthy Start have been almost double the rate for children who are in Healthy Start. This year, the incidence of child abuse for children in Healthy Start is two and a half times less than for children not in the program. Learn more by visiting the following links:Report | Executive Summary | Appendices | Service Implementation Fact Sheet | Outcomes Fact Sheet
Michigan Presentations Detail Effectiveness of Drug Courts and Practices to Lowering Recidivism and Cost
At the recent Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals Annual Conference, NPC Senior Research Associate Shannon Carey gave two presentations based on the findings and lessons learned from evaluations of drug courts in Michigan, California, Maryland, Oregon, and Guam. One of the presentations defined cost-benefit analysis and described the steps involved in performing NPC’s approach called Transactional and Institutional Cost analysis. A preview of the new component of the Michigan DCCMIS called the DCCAT (Drug Court Cost Analysis Tool) was presented with an overview of how it works and how to use it. View these presentations (see Feb. 2009 listings).
NIJ-Funded Study Documents Effects of Providing Offenders With Substance-Free Transitional Housing Services
NPC Research, with funding from the National Institute of Justice, investigated the self-sufficiency, community adjustment, substance use, and criminal recidivism outcomes for substance-abusing offenders served through the Washington County (Oregon) Community Corrections Department to document the value added of providing substance-free transitional housing services. The WCCC received federal funding to provide offenders with substance-free transitional housing. For more information, please see the Final Report and Key Findings.
Presentations at New England Conference Detail Successes and Challenges of Drug Courts
Shannon Carey and Mike Finigan attended the New England Association of Drug Court Professionals conference on October 20 and 21, 2008. They presented information on adult, juvenile and family treatment drug courts. View the presentations.
Evaluation of Child Care Enhancement Project Suggests Increased Quality in Project Child Care Providers
NPC Research just completed a 3-year evaluation of the Lane County (Oregon) Child Care Enhancement Project (CCEP). CCEP provided subsidies to parents to help with child care expenses and provided training, technical assistance, wage enhancements, and other supports to child care providers. Evaluation results suggest that family child care providers who participated in the project showed increased quality (compared to control providers) in several domains, including support for early language development and social-emotional development. For more information, please see the Final Report and Key Findings.
NPC Publishes Results of Evaluation of the Multnomah County Child Care Community Fund
NPC Research has completed the first year of a 3-year evaluation of the Multnomah County Child Care Community Fund, which is providing training and technical assistance and wage enhancements to child care providers along with subsidies to families to help cover the cost of child care. For a description of the project and characteristics of the participating child care providers, please see the Year 1 Evaluation Report.
Conference Presentations Address Impact of Drug Courts on Recidivism and Costs and the Effectiveness of Family Treatment Drug Courts and Juvenile Drug Courts
NPC researchers Shannon Carey, Michael Finigan, and Juliette Mackin presented at the annual meeting of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) in St. Louis, MO, on May 29, 2008. They discussed drug court practices and their impact on recidivism and costs. Among other findings, they noted that courts using evaluation feedback to make modifications to the drug court program had 4 times greater cost savings. The researchers also pointed out that drug courts providing formal training for all team members had 5 times greater savings. View the presentation: Powerpoint.
A second presentation at the NADCP conference focused on the effectiveness of family treatment drug courts and juvenile drug courts. NPC researchers Finigan, Scott Burrus, Carey, and Mackin explained that FTDC parents are more likely to enter treatment, spend more time in treatment, and complete treatment. Among other findings, they noted that FTDC children were more likely to be reunified with their parents at the end of the case. View the presentation: Powerpoint.
