Re: Evaluation information sought

[William Meezan <meezan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:57 PM 11/13/97 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I am the project manager of the evaluation (P.I.s:  Fran Jacobs and Ann
>Easterbrooks) of a new program in Massachusetts that has as one of its
>goals "the prevention of child abuse and neglect by supporting positive,
>effective parenting skills and nurturing home environments."  The program
>is a statewide and intends to provide services on a voluntary basis to
>families with first-time mothers under the age of 20.  Maternal age and
>parity are the only eligibility criteria.  Services will involve home
>visitation, center-based groups, and other services from the prenatal
>period until the child is three.  Parents are eligible to enter
>the program during the prenatal period through child age 3 months.
>
>We are in the design phase of the evaluation.  One of our promised
>products to our funder (the Massachusetts Children's Trust Fund) is a
>literature review on evaluation of such programs. We need to let them know
>how evaluations of similar programs have been conducted in the past and
>then the direction in which we are taking this evaluation.
>
>So, here, after much explanation, is my request:  if you know of any
>evaluations of programs that provide similar services to those described
>above, I would greatly appreciate it if you could alert me to them. We are
>especially interested in programs and evaluations that have not published
>their evaluation reports.  If you have any information that you would be
>willing to share with us, my address and contact information are below.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Anne
>
>___________________________________________________________________________
>
>Anne Brady, Ph.D.				 	(617) 627-3866
>Project Manager					(fax)	(617) 627-3503
>Healthy Families Evaluation Project
>Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development
>Tufts University
>105 College Ave.
>Medford,MA  02155
>
>e-mail:  abrady@tufts.edu
>
>
Anne,

There is a wonderful review of this literature on home visiting in the
Winter 1993 issue of a journal called The Future of Children, published by
the Packard Foundation in Los Altos CA.  Also, Family Resource Coalition in
Chicago has put out a number of updates on evaluation, as has Heather
Weiss' group at Harvard through the Evaluatin Exchange.  

I hope this helps.

>
William Meezan, DSW
John Milner Professor of Child Welfare
University of Southern California 
School of Social Work
MRF 214   University Park
Los Angeles, CA  90089
(213) 740-5883 (office)
(213) 740-0789 (office fax)
(760) 770-7009 (home, Cathedral City)
(760) 328-2778 (fax, Cathedral City)
(213) 663-7662 (home, Los Angeles)