A Note from the Director
Jessica Pearson
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The new year is starting off with new policy actions in several areas of CPR research activity. In December 2024, the Federal Office of Child Support Services (OCSS) published its Final Rule extending Federal financial participation (FFP) funds to child support programs for employment and training services for noncustodial parents (NCPs). And on January 14, 2025, OCSS announced extensive policy guidance to promote safety in the child support program for survivors of domestic violence. CPR has long championed these developments and its past work in these areas was cited as empirical justification for adoption of both of these measures. In addition to projects dealing with NCP employment and safety in child support, CPR’s 2025 portfolio includes work on preventing, measuring and addressing youth homelessness, effective messaging about economic mobility for youth in tribal and non-tribal settings, and promoting fairness for all clients in the child support program.
We look forward to a productive year and wish all our colleagues and friends a healthy and happy 2025!
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A 2 Generation Approach to Supporting Homeless Families into Economic Stability | |
CPR’s new evaluation report on the Generational Opportunities to Achieve Long-term Success (GOALS) project, finds that providing approximately nine months of housing along with a comprehensive array of on- and off-site services to homeless parents and their children leads to families experiencing stable housing, increased employment and wages, and improved family wellbeing. Conducted in Arapahoe County, Colorado, CPR’s evaluation involved the random assignment of eligible families experiencing homelessness into groups receiving conventional community services and the GOALS treatment and a comparison of their experiences over 24 months using quantitative and qualitative measures including the analysis of administrative databases maintained by various public agencies. The Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners seeks to adopt GOALS and its 2Gen approach on a long-term basis. | |
CPR Helps to Plan and Convene Grantee Meeting for the Safe Access for Victims’ Economic Security (SAVES) Initiative
The 3rd annual All-Grantee Meeting for the OCSS-funded SAVES demonstration program was held on December 4-6, 2024, in Denver, Colorado. It was attended by members of all 13 demonstrations sites (12 state and 1 tribal child support agency), representatives of some of their State Domestic Violence Coalitions, staff of the SAVES Center partners, which consists of Center for Policy Research, BWJP, and the Centre for Public Impact, and funders, the Federal OCSS and the Colorado Department of Human Services. In sessions led by the SAVES Center, demonstration sites discussed the engagement of survivors in child support agency initiatives, the use of screening tools to identify and address domestic violence among applicants for child support services and policies to enhance the safety of survivors. CPR and its SAVES Center partners provide technical assistance, training, research, policy guidance and evaluation to the 13 demonstration sites.
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CPR Research Cited in New Federal Policy Initiatives
Employment and Training Services for Noncustodial Parents (NCPs) in the Child Support Program
On December 13, 2024, OCSS published a final rule to allow State and Tribal child support programs the option to use Federal Financial participation (FFP) to provide employment and training services to eligible noncustodial parents. NCP employment services have previously been disallowed for FFP despite growing evidence of their effectiveness. CPR is currently evaluating Colorado’s IMPACS project which is a TANF-funded program to provide employment help, case management and supportive services dealing with housing and transportation to NCPs who struggle to meet their current child support obligations. For more information on CPR’s past research and many resources on NCP employment programs, click the button below!
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NEW RESEARCH ARTICLE ON THE PATHWAYS TO SUCCESS INTERVENTION
CPR’s Senior Research Associate, Lanae Davis, published the results of the formative evaluation of the Pathways to Success intervention. Pathways to Success (Pathways) is a youth-driven intervention designed to prevent homelessness among youth with foster care experience as they approach early adulthood. The formative evaluation assessed the feasibility of implementing Pathways with fidelity and its potential for improving outcomes. Survey data generated with 128 youth who received Pathways revealed a significant decline in the rate of homelessness from 37% at pretest to 10% following engagement with Pathways. The study lays the foundation for future research on homelessness prevention for youth with foster care experience. Results appear in Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, Volume 105, Number 4, December 2024.
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2024 APPAM Fall Research Conference- Colorado's Pathways to Success wins 1st place
November 23, 2024
CPR’s Lanae Davis and Mathematica’s Leah Pranschke co-presented a poster describing Colorado's Pathways to Success study at the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)’s Saturday session on November 23, 2024. Conducted with Colorado’s Department of Human Services, Division of Child Welfare, with funding from the Children’s Bureau of the U.D. Department of HHS, Pathways is testing the effectiveness of pairing Navigators with youth aging out of the foster care systems to address their goals and prevent homelessness while respecting their autonomy. The poster, titled "Understanding Coach-like Engagement between Youth and Child Welfare Workers in Colorado’s Pathways to Success Service Model," detailed the study’s early implementation findings, which compared youth reactions to services provided by the Pathways Navigators and comparison providers. Check back on CPR’s website in early 2025 for the full Early Implementation Report.
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2024 APPAM Fall Research Conference- SAVES Center
November 22, 2024
CPR Senior Research Associate Lanae Davis and CPR Research Analyst, Rachel Wildfeuer, co-presented a poster at APPAM’s Friday session on November 22, 2024. Their poster outlined the potential safety risks associated with various child support case actions that survivors of domestic violence may experience as well as risk reduction strategies that agencies and courts might undertake to promote safety. CPR is leading research and evaluation activities for the SAVES Center, which is a national resource center to support 12 states and 1 tribal child support agency funded by OCSS to conduct pilot projects aimed at enhancing the safety of the child support system for survivors of domestic violence
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A.C.F. Region 7 Fatherhood Economic Mobility Summit 2024
November 14, 2024
CPR Research Associate Betty Tegegne attended the Administration for Children and Families Region 7 Fatherhood Economic Mobility Summit in Kansas City, Missouri, where she led a session on father-supportive policies and programs. Her presentation focused on state level initiatives in key areas of public life: education, criminal justice, employment, and responsible fatherhood. State program specialists, public benefits administrators, and other attendees learned about father-supportive policies, how their state compares to others in supporting the economic mobility of fathers and discussed barriers to and strategies for making policy change.
New York SAVES Summit
October 28, 2024
CPR Senior Research Associate Lanae Davis attended a state-wide Summit held by the New York SAVES Demonstration site in Syracuse, New York, with attendees from the Child Support Division, the SAVES advisory council, public assistance agency representatives, court personnel and domestic violence advocates. Davis’ presentation included SAVES Center activities and the results of New York’s pilot screening assessment for survivors of domestic violence. Conducted in 12 New York districts, the pilot assessed the frequency with which survivors of domestic violence disclose their abuse to child support services when presented with screening tools that utilize behavioral questions versus those that use operational questions keyed to the child support process.
Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference
January 16, 2025
CPR Research Assistant, Kayla Christiani presented findings from CPR’s GOALS Outcome Evaluation in a session on homelessness and housing at the SSWR annual conference held in Seattle, Washington. In the presentation, she highlighted the efficacy of the GOALS 2Gen model and reported on the program's positive impacts on families across several domains including physical and mental health, early childhood education, postsecondary and employment pathways, economic assets, and social capital.
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Announcements
New Hire: Jacqueline Whearty
The CPR team welcomed Dr. Whearty as a Research Associate in September 2024. Her passion and policy expertise lie in the intersections between economic supports for single parents (e.g., child support, informal cash support, targeted tax credits), coparenting, and child wellbeing. Her work has been published in peer reviewed journals, such as Family Relations and the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Before arriving at CPR, she gained policy research experience at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Texas Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division, and the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center at Vanderbilt University.
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Jane Venohr Appointed Co-Chair of NCSEA Research Subcommittee and publishes in NCSEA Communique
CPR Senior Research Associate and Economist, Dr. Jane Venohr was appointed as Co-Chair of the FY 2024 – 2025 NCSEA Research Subcommittee. She also published an article in the NCSEA Child Support Communique for Fall 2024 on low-income adjustments in child support guidelines.
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CPR Featured in the Youth Empowerment Radio Podcast
CPR Senior Research Associate Lanae Davis was featured in the Youth Empowerment Radio podcast, hosted by Youth Move Colorado in early January of 2025. She discussed her work on youth and young adult homelessness as part of Colorado’s Pathways to Success Program and a HUD-funded study. Additionally, she touched on the importance of working with vulnerable populations and the research approach that is necessary.
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