Introduction
Research Questions
- How did CWCC grantees and their partners respond to the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic?
- What challenges did grantees face as a result of the pandemic?
- What adjustments did grantees make in response to challenges?
- How did CWCC grantees perceive the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic to affect their communities and their CWCC activities?
- What lessons have we learned from CWCC grantees’ experiences?
The Child Welfare Community Collaborations (CWCC) initiative is a set of cooperative agreements funded by the Children’s Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) "that support the development, implementation, and evaluation of primary prevention strategies to improve the safety, stability, and well-being of families through a continuum of community-based services and supports.” The purpose of the initiative is to mobilize communities to develop and evaluate multi-system collaboratives that provide a continuum of services to prevent child abuse and neglect. ACF awarded CWCC grants to thirteen states, communities, and Tribes: a first cohort of four grantees in 2018 and a second cohort of nine grantees in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 came shortly after the first cohort of CWCC grantees began implementing program activities. As such, grantees had to pivot to adapt collaboration processes and service provision to accommodate pandemic mitigation measures such as social distancing. Many also had to adapt services to address pressing community needs resulting from the pandemic (e.g., exacerbated financial hardships, loss of childcare due to school or daycare closures, and social isolation and increased stress).
This brief describes the ways the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions affected cohort 1 CWCC grantees’ efforts to support families during this unprecedented time. After providing a brief overview of the four cohort 1 CWCC projects, the brief describes the pandemic-related challenges grantees experienced and how they adapted to continue their project activities and serve families. The brief’s final section presents overall findings and their implications.
Purpose
The mitigation measures associated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to significant disruptions in service provision and shifting community needs. The first cohort of CWCC grantees, who had just begun implementing grant activities when the pandemic began, had to adapt their projects quickly to continue to support families during this unprecedented time.
Key Findings and Highlights
- In interviews, CWCC grantees relayed their perceptions of the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on their communities and their CWCC work. They voiced concerns that state, local, and organizational COVID-19 pandemic mitigation strategies (such as lockdowns that limited in-person schooling and childcare), and the increased stress placed on families, were contributing to what they saw as reductions in reports of child maltreatment but increases in the risk and severity of child maltreatment.
- Pandemic-related shutdowns and social distancing led CWCC grantee project teams to find new ways to collaborate with their partners.
- CWCC projects adapted their outreach and service delivery approaches by incorporating accessible virtual platforms, although not without challenge.
- CWCC grantees and their partners pivoted to respond to the COVID-related needs of the families in their communities, particularly by increasing provision of concrete supports.
Methods
The CWCC cross-site process evaluation used semi-structured interview protocols to collect information about grantees’ efforts to implement their CWCC projects. To better understand grantees’ COVID-19 response efforts, the evaluation team added more-tailored probes to the interviews. For the findings presented in this brief, the Abt team conducted 28 teleconference interviews (six to eight interviews with each of the four cohort one grantees) between July and August 2020. Interviewees included project directors and program managers from grantees and their partner organizations, as well as frontline staff and data managers involved in the CWCC grant project. Interviews lasted between 55 and 90 minutes each.
Citation
Tano, C., Layzer, C., Hyra, A., Cook, R., and Blocklin, M. (2021). Community Prevention of Child Maltreatment: Lessons learned and Promising Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic. OPRE Report 2023-11, Washington, DC: Office of Research, Planning, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- ACF:
- Administration for Children and Families
- CARES:
- Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
- CAN:
- Child Abuse and Neglect
- CWCC:
- Child Welfare Community Collaborations
- OPRE:
- Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation