Youth At-Risk of Homelessness Summative Evaluation Infographics

The YARH-3 impact study focuses on three main objectives:

• Examine the magnitude of Pathways’ effect on participant outcomes, including but not limited to housing, educational attainment and employment, connections to supportive adults, and well-being
• Examine whether Pathways is effective for key subgroups of the population served for the full study sample
• Provide exploratory evidence that links features of implementation to participant outcomes

The YARH-3 implementation study focuses on two main objectives:

• Support interpretation of Pathways’ impacts on outcomes
• Generate information about factors that contributed to or inhibited implementation of Pathways in different settings, which will support replication or improvement of future Pathways service delivery

These infographics provide overviews of both the data sources used in the YARH-3 summative evaluation impact and implementation studies, and the Pathways and comparison programs involved in the summative evaluation. Understanding both the service models and the data used to evaluate them may offer important insights to programs working with youth and young adults who have been involved in the child welfare system.

 The impact study sample includes youth and young adults enrolled in 15 total study hubs, 9 of which provide Pathways services and 6 that offer comparison services. In Pathways, specially trained child welfare workers (known as Navigators) engage youth and young adults in a coach-like way to help them identify their goals and connect them with resources. After enrolling youth and young adults into the program, Navigators help them work toward achieving at least two goals related to the five outcome areas of housing, education, employment, permanent connections, and health and well-being. Navigators also provide a variety of services on an as-needed basis.

Comparison programs in Colorado provide business-as-usual services. After enrolling eligible youth and young adults who have been in foster care at age 14 or older, the workers help them create goals and develop an independent living plan. Workers meet monthly with the youth and young adults to discuss progress towards goal completion.

The YARH-3 summative evaluation uses mixed methods to examine service model effectiveness and implementation. The summative evaluation conducted under YARH-3 will examine the effect of Colorado’s Pathways to Success comprehensive service model (Pathways) and business-as-usual services provided by counties in Colorado through Chafee funding (comparison). YARH-3 includes an impact study that includes a large, cluster quasi-experimental design and an implementation study that includes data collection with program staff and youth and young adults to understand Pathways and comparison services.

Primary sources of data for the impact study include a self-report survey with youth and young adults, administrative records data, and program administrative data. Supplemental sources of data to aid analysis and interpretation include additional administrative data to demonstrate baseline equivalence and evidence from existing data to conduct a Bayesian analysis of findings. In the implementation study, data sources for the sample of hubs participating in hub visits include interviews with leadership, supervisors, Pathways Navigators, and comparison workers, as well as focus groups with youth and young adults. Sources of data for all Pathways and comparison hubs include:

• Telephone check-ins
• Program administrative data
• Documents guiding programing
• Aggregated extant data

Fiorito, Ryan, Alexander Marketos, Effie Metropoulos, Yvonne Marki-Korosec, and Nickie Fung (2024). Youth At-Risk of Homelessness: Participants’ Experience with Pathways Services. OPRE Report # 2024-152, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/opre-participant-pathways-infographic-sept24.pdf (PDF)

Kim, Joyce, Anna Marston, Yvonne Marki-Korosec, and Robin Lindquist-Grantz (2024). Youth At-Risk of Homelessness: Implementation Study Data Sources. OPRE Report # 2024-150, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/opre-participant-comparison-infographic-sept24.pdf (PDF)

Marketos, Alexander, Ryan Fiorito, Effie Metropoulos, Yvonne Marki-Korosec, and Nickie Fung (2024). Youth At-Risk of Homelessness: Participants’ Experience with Comparison Services. OPRE Report # 2024-151, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/opre-implementation-data-infographic-sept24.pdf (PDF)

Marston, Anna, Joyce Kim, Yvonne Marki-Korosec, and Robin Lindquist-Grantz (2024). Youth At-Risk of Homelessness: Impact Study Data Sources. OPRE Report # 2024-149, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/opre/opre-impact-data-infographic-sept24.pdf (PDF)