The Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project, funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is a community-specific strategy delivered through eight regional networks designed to address the full spectrum of community-based prevention. This article summarizes a strong and meaningful pattern of improvements…

Background: Community health efforts often include outreach activities designed to increase awareness and ensure uptake of services or programs. Yet, few comprehensive outreach evaluations exist, particularly those designed to improve access to and use of mental health services. Purpose: This article summarizes the use of two established…

Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards, an experimental, privately funded, conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to help families break the cycle of poverty, was the first comprehensive CCT program in a developed country. Launched in 2007 by New York City's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), Family Rewards offered cash assistance to low-income…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

Model programs and standards for substance abuse prevention have been identified by a number of federal agencies. The study reported here assessed two methods of delivery of one such program, Life Skills Training (LST), implemented in nine rural disadvantaged school districts. The results indicate that neither standard LST nor an infused LST…

Findings of an evaluation of a pilot home-based respite care program designed to serve 35 severely mentally retarded and disabled persons were reported. Results indicated that respite care services had never been previously received by 51.8% of the families. (Author/SB)

An adult basic education evaluation design should be directly related to realistic and assessable process and outcome objectives of a project. The design should be established early, and baseline data should be obtained prior to, or at least concurrent with, initiating the delivery of services. (CT)

This article discusses the challenges faced when a popular model program, the Strengthening Families Program, which in the past has been implemented on a smaller scale in single organizations, moves to a larger, multiorganization endeavor. On the basis of 42 interviews conducted with program staff, the results highlight two main themes that…

This article reviews recent changes in the mental health system's response to children and adolescents with serious emotional disabilities, emphasizing developments in service delivery and service demonstration research and evaluation efforts. The role of research is examined in terms of its critical importance in improving the system of care for…

The paper considers the concept of needs assessment in terms of the activities of TADS (Technical Assistance Development System), a project to provide support services to model demonstration projects and state education agency grantees of the Handicapped Children's Early Education Program. Section 1 defines needs assessment, describes approaches…

The report describes the Unified Delinquency Intervention Services (UDIS) program, a demonstration project to provide services for the chronic inner-city delinquent. Part I provides introductory information on the program and the chronic delinquent, design of the study (including staff, general design characteristics, archival data and interview…

The report reviews 1978-1979 performance of the Resource Access Projects (RAPs), a network of projects federally funded to assist handicapped children in Head Start through the development and dissemination of materials and information, and by providing training services to Head Start staff and to the families of handicapped children. Following an…

The rationale for a multistage approach to evaluating services demonstration programs is discussed. The approach takes into account limitations that are often found in such programs. The National Evaluation of Models for Linking Drug Abuse Treatment and Primary Care provides an example. (SLD)

The document presents the final report of the High/Scope Demonstration Preschool Project, one of the First Chance national demonstration projects funded under the Handicapped Children's Early Education Program. Chapter 1 outlines accomplishments of the project in terms of seven program goals (including the development of procedures for assessing…

Initiated in October 1970, the program trained teachers to use an individualized teaching approach to teach a cross-age range of children in a small group (six to eight children). Over the winter, the teachers received intensive training with the expectation that during the mobile phase they would be required to work with the children in isolated…