The Creative and Collaborative Progression of YARH

Publication Date: September 6, 2024
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  • Published: 2024

Introduction

As a multiphase program with each phase building on the previous one, the Youth At-Risk of Homelessness project (YARH) required collaboration, creativity, and transparency among federal funders, grantees, local evaluators, the cross-site evaluation technical assistance (TA) team, and youth and young adults with lived experience in the child welfare system.

This brief begins with the perspective of the federal funders, who laid the groundwork for the grant programs and emphasized the importance of engaging youth and young adults involved in the child welfare system throughout all phases of the project. Next, it describes the collaboration between grantees and local evaluators and their engagement of youth and young adults involved in the child welfare system. The brief also describes how the TA team helped grantees and local evaluators build evidence about their comprehensive service models (referred to as “interventions”) throughout YARH-1 and YARH-2. Lastly, the brief include the perspectives of youth and young adults who received services developed and provided by YARH grantees.

Learnings from the brief will help readers explore intervention design, implementation, and evaluation efforts in a multiphase program.

Purpose

To date, the success of YARH has largely depended on creative and careful efforts from a close partnership of various partners. This brief describes the factors that supported creativity and collaboration across the three phases of YARH, and learnings from the process. The brief should be of interest to funders, grantees, evaluators, and other partners that might support a similar multi-year, multiphase program requiring collaboration across multiple partners to build and disseminate evidence on an intervention’s effectiveness.

Key Findings and Highlights

Federal funders, grantees, local evaluators, the TA team, and youth and young adults with lived experience in the child welfare system collaborated across the three phases of YARH to design, implement, and refine interventions. Key themes that emerged in response to questions to these partners include: 

  • Federal funders provided a clear framework as well as time for creativity
  • Grantees and local evaluators collaborated intentionally, early, and often
  • Youth and young adult involvement was valuable at multiple grant phases
  • The cross-site evaluation team provided tailored TA to support evidence building
  • Youth and young adults responded positively to YARH interventions 

The brief explores these themes in greater depth and highlights the importance of each partner’s participation in a multiphase grant process. 

Methods

This brief is informed by written and verbal responses to questions posed to YARH federal funders, YARH-2 grantee project directors, YARH-2 local evaluators, and members of the cross-site evaluation team. The brief also incorporates feedback from youth and young adults who participated in the YARH-2 comprehensive service models, including findings from the YARH-2 process study report and data collected for the YARH-3 implementation study. The brief reflects analysis and synthesized data across these respondents and information from the YARH funding opportunity announcements to identify themes and describe the progression of the project.

Recommendations

Examining the process of YARH presents several learnings about the value of trust, collaboration, joint commitment, and relationships among partners: 

  • Federal funders and other funders can provide clear expectations and support to ensure grantees and partners feel equipped and committed to pursuing work that centers on a defined primary population. 
  • Grantees and evaluators can stay centered on the urgency of this work by authentically and directly engaging the primary population to help shape interventions that they, or others like them, might receive. 
  • All partners must have a joint understanding that there is no one expert that can keep this work moving, and that everyone must and has something to contribute.

Citation

Kim, Joyce, Megan J. McCormick, and Nuzhat Islam. “The Creative and Collaborative Progression of YARH.” OPRE Report No. 2024-167, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024. 

Related Publications

  • Gothro, Andrew, and Valerie Caplan (2018). Youth Engagement in Child Welfare Service Planning. OPRE Report No. 2018-98. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Lynn-Green, R., E. Mugo, N. Fung, and M.C. Bradley. “Building Evidence for a New Intervention or Program Takes Time.” OPRE Report #2024-166. Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2024.
  • R. Keith, N. Islam, R. Sarwar, and M.C. Bradley. (2020). Reducing Homelessness Among Youth in Child Welfare Involvement: Phase II Implementation Experiences in a Multi-phase Grant, OPRE Report 2020-129, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 
  • M. McCormick, K. Chesnut, and M.C. Bradley (2023). Innovation and Support for Evaluating Assessing Summative Evaluation Readiness: Lessons Learned, OPRE Report No. 2023-121, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Van Drunen, Molly, and Amy Dworsky. "Alameda County's Youth Transitions Partnership Program: Lessons on Program Material Design." OPRE Report No. 2022-283. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2022.

Glossary

CB:
Children’s Bureau
OPRE:
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation
YARH:
Youth At-Risk of Homelessness, an initiative the Administration for Children and Families funds to help communities address homelessness among youth and young adults with child welfare involvement
TA:
Technical assistance