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Evaluating an Intervention to Prevent Family Homelessness
(Archived Project)
Investigator (PI): Sleath, Betsy Lynn
Past Investigator: Calloway, Michael
Performing Organization (PO): (Current): University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research
Supporting Agency (SA): Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS)
Initial Year: 1999
Final Year: 2001
Record Source/Award ID: HSR/0
Award Type: Contract
Abstract: This two-year project focuses on one of the more vexing and growing social problems of our day, homeless families. Recent studies have shown that when a variety of housing options are available along with clinical and supportive services, homeless individuals, even those with challenging impairments such as severe mental illness or substance abuse disorders, can maintain housing stability and achieve some level of community re-integration. Unfortunately, what works for homeless families is not as well understood as what works for individuals. As a result, the Wake County, North Carolina, Continuum-of-Care Collaborative (Wake CCC) is participating in a multi-site cooperative agreement with the Federal Center for Mental Health Services to document in greater detail what, and under what conditions, particular housing options along with a proposed consumer-driven supportive services, enhance housing and family stability, and community re-integration for families. The Wake CCC is a cross-section of public and private human-service providers, including Pan Lutheran Ministries of Wake County, the designated grantee and a major provider of homeless services in Raleigh, North Carolina. Wake CCC representatives seek to put in place an improved best-practice service model for homeless women with psychiatric and/or substance abuse disorders who are caring for their families. In a two-year planning phase the Sheps Center, in cooperation with the Wake CCC, coordinating center, CMHS and CSAT, will carry out a series of tasks to ensure the development of a service enrichment initiative housed within Pan Lutheran Ministries. The Coordinating Center consists of investigators from Vanderbilt University and Policy Research Associates, Inc. At the end of the two years, the collaborative will have: 1) assembled an active consumer advisory group and developed three supportive teams comprised of staff from local service providers; 2) hired and trained three case manager/mentors to head the teams; 3) have in place a working services intervention model that is consistent with the cross-site evaluation plan; 4) identified and made measurable client-level outcomes; 5) documented the epidemiology of homelessness among female heads of households in Wake County; 6) procured continued services funding; 7) developed a working logic model of the initiative; 8) assessed the potential of the proposed model; 9) developed a plan to evaluate the integrity of the program, and; 10) finalized a plan to evaluate whether the proposed initiative positively alters the housing and other social outcomes of participating homeless mothers.
MeSH Terms:
  • Adult
  • Community Participation
  • Family Relations
  • Female
  • * Homeless Persons
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders
  • North Carolina
  • Parenting
  • Program Evaluation
  • * Social Support
  • Substance-Related Disorders
  • * Women's Health
Keywords:
  • research support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Country: United States
State: North Carolina
Zip Code: 27599
UI: 20010098
Project Status: Archived
Record History: ('2000: PI changed',)