Introduction
The Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) grant program-- a federally funded adolescent pregnancy prevention initiative administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Family and Youth Services Bureau-- teaches youth how to voluntarily refrain from non-marital sexual activity. In Spring 2021, eight SRAE grant recipients participated in a pilot to build capacity to engage in continuous quality improvement (CQI) to address programmatic challenges. The goal of the pilot was to build the grant recipients’ capacity to engage in CQI, and obtain their feedback on tools designed to support service providers’ CQI efforts. The documents presented below were developed or refined through feedback from the participating grant recipients.
The documents include —
- Brief: Supporting Grant Recipients Through Continuous Quality Improvement Efforts: Lessons from the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) CQI Pilot
- Template: Continuous Quality Improvement Plan Template
- Self-Assessment: Self-Assessment of Continuous Quality Improvement
- CQI Training Modules: 11 discrete modules that align with the CQI Plan Template to support continuous quality improvement practices (forthcoming)
Purpose
This collection of CQI tools was designed to support SRAE grant recipients to engage in improvement efforts. The SRAE National Evaluation (SRAENE) team, led by Mathematica and their partner, Public Strategies, developed the tools and conducted the CQI pilot with grant teams.
The primary audience for these tools comprises practitioners and evaluators supporting SRAE and related youth programming. The brief also may be of interest to researchers and evaluators more broadly, as it presents considerations for supporting practitioners conducting CQI.
Key Findings and Highlights
The brief shares takeaways that emerged from the SRAE CQI pilot. Takeaways from the SRAENE’s team’s work with grant recipients included:
- Practitioners should strive to adhere to core CQI principles, not a specific process. The SRAE CQI template presents one process but other CQI approaches exist to support the same goal.
- Practitioners may have improvement practices in place. The CQI self-assessment can help practitioners understand what they already have in place.
- CQI processes can be built incrementally and over time.
- An active CQI team helps to keep improvement efforts on track. The CQI Training Module 2 includes more information on CQI teams.
Methods
The SRAENE team designed and conducted a pilot to generate takeaways about building practitioners’ capacity to engage in CQI. The pilot was also an opportunity to gather feedback on the CQI template to inform refinements. The tools in this series were refined or developed through the pilot with SRAE grant recipients.
The SRAENE team would like to thank the eight grant recipient teams who participated in the SRAE CQI pilot and informed these suggestions. The teams are Ambassadors for Christ; Another Choice, Another Chance; Change Happens; Future Leaders Outreach Network; Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area; Minnesota Department of Health; Social Innovation Lab; Westcare Pacific Islands.
Citation
Buonaspina, Annie, and Samantha Zelenack. “Supporting Grantees Through Continuous Quality Improvement: Lessons from the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education (SRAE) CQI pilot.” OPRE Report 2022-142. Washington DC, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Buonaspina, Annie, and Brittany Tabora. "Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Plan Template." Washington DC, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Buonaspina, Annie, and Brittany Tabora. "Self-Assessment of Continuous Quality Improvement." Washington DC, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Buonaspina, Annie, and Brittany Tabora. “Continuous Quality Improvement Training Modules.” Washington DC, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Related Documents
| File Type | File Name | File Size | Self-Assessment of Continuous Quality Improvement | 567.55 KB | Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Plan Template | 218.03 KB |
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