Research Projects
Dr. Susan J. Wells
Wells, Laliberte and Ramsey County team receive federal grant
In 2007, Professor Susan J. Wells led a proposal team in collaboration with Ramsey County Community Human Services submit a proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the topic of Using Comprehensive Family Assessments to Improve Child Welfare Outcomes. In September, the grant was awarded to Ramsey County with the School of Social Work as the evaluator for the 5-year project. The total value of the grant is $2 million with the University receiving half of the total grant amount over the life of the project. Read more.
Ramsey County Community Human Services Department (RCCHSD) will examine its current child protection family assessment processes to incorporate, test, and adapt the Children’s Bureau Comprehensive Family Assessment (CFA) Guidelines. Workers will address the entire family network in a dynamic, ongoing, strengths-based process that considers family dynamics and environmental/social context including specific cultural, ethnic and linguistic concerns. It is hypothesized the resulting thorough, specific, and holistic assessments will lead to greater client engagement, increased paternal involvement, and more cost-effective service targeting including appropriate services that decrease: placements, re-entries into foster care, and re-referrals to child protection.
The School of Social Work project team led by Professor Wells, Principal Investigator, and CASCW Director Traci LaLiberte, co-Principal Investigator, will provide a third party independent evaluation of the process, practice, and outcomes associated with program implementation. The evaluation team will participate with RCCHSD to develop a constant feedback loop to ensure implementation fidelity, tracking of project activities, identifying outcomes and enumerating resources expended in the implementation and service delivery. In partnership with community members, cultural consultants, cooperating agencies, and the evaluator, RCCHSD will design an implementation manual for CFA which will be tested in the agency’s child services division. A final version of this manual will incorporate feedback from evaluation efforts and will be disseminated to other counties and states to guide further CFA implementation.