Resources in this section describe how to design and develop a range of effective program evaluations and identify data collection instruments and strategies.
Building Capacity to Evaluate Interventions for Youth/Young Adults With Child Welfare Involvement At-Risk of Homelessness (YAHR), 2013–2024
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
Explains a project that provides evaluation-related technical assistance to organizations developing interventions for youth with child welfare system involvement who are most likely to experience homelessness. Phase 2 of the project provides evaluation support for organizations developing and testing new interventions for these youth, and phase 3 supports evidence-building activities.
Challenges in Using Comparison Data in Child Welfare Evaluations
Roller White & O’Brien & W. Davis & Rogg & Rudlang-Perman & Jewell Morgan & Houston (2016)
Research on Social Work Practice, 26(5)
Describes the evaluation of permanency roundtables, an intervention to help youth in foster care achieve legal permanency, and the challenges evaluators faced in finding and using appropriate comparison data.
Creating a New Narrative: Collaborative and Effective Evaluation in Tribal Communities
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau (2019)
Presents a video guide for developing culturally and scientifically rigorous evaluations for Tribal communities. The website also links to related resources.
Design for the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation—Strong Start
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (2019)
Describes the design of Strong Start, a mother and infant home visiting program evaluation. The evaluation aims to understand the effects of home visiting as a prenatal intervention to improve infant and maternal health outcomes, prevent and reduce adverse birth outcomes, and reduce health-care costs.
Developing an Evidence Base for Your Program: A Resource Guide (PDF - 980 KB)
California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (2018)
Provides key concepts to assist organizations with planning and creating an evidence-based program evaluation.
Evaluation Brief: Evaluating Systems and Organizational Change in Welfare Settings (PDF - 644 KB)
James Bell Associates, Inc. (2016)
Highlights effective methods for evaluating organizational functions in the child welfare setting.
The Evaluation Center
Western Michigan University (2020)
Provides checklists targeted to specific evaluation tasks and approaches on designing, budgeting, contracting, staffing, managing, and assessing evaluations of programs.
Evaluation Plan Development Tip Sheet
James Bell Associates, Inc. (2019)
Presents a tip sheet to support the development of an evaluation plan for a child welfare intervention. The tip sheet outlines what to consider when designing an evaluation plan.
Evaluation Resource Guide for Children's Bureau Discretionary Grantees, Second Edition (PDF - 628 KB)
James Bell Associates, Inc. (2018)
Offers a list of resources that can be used to inform and enhance evaluations of child welfare initiatives funded through the Children's Bureau. The resource also provides general information for researches and evaluators across the field of child welfare.
Operations in Evaluating Community Interventions
University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development, Community Tool Box (2016)
Guides users through the process of creating and implementing an evaluation of a community-based intervention, from selecting questions to collecting data.
The Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) Approach to Evaluation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (2019)
Describes the evaluation approach being used by the PII evaluation team to carry out rigorous evaluations to examine the implementation and effectiveness of the PII interventions. The resource outlines the evaluation approach, describes the evaluation framework, and reviews preevaluation and evaluation activities.
Special Topic Paper: Child Welfare Waiver Demonstrations and Evidence-Based Programs
James Bell Associates, Inc. (2019)
Examines efforts to implement and evaluate evidence-based programs from 2012 to 2019. The resource reviews the successes and challenges of implementing evidence-based programs and explores facilitators and barriers to that implementation. The resource also discusses findings that emerged from the evaluation of evidence-based practices.
Video Series: A Framework to Design, Test, Spread and Sustain Effective Practice in Child Welfare
U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources, Administration for Children and Families, Children's Bureau (2019)
Presents a five-part video series on evaluation, which includes a framework to design, test, spread, and sustain effective child welfare practices. The videos discuss how to evaluate child welfare practices, how to apply evaluation findings, why building evidence and performing evidence-based practice can be a challenge, and more.