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INFORMATION
COLLECTION ACTIVITY #3
Procedural
Justice informed alternatives to contempt (pjac)
TOPIC
GUIDE FOR Program staff and community partner interviews
The
PJAC implementation study will include two multi-day site visits to
each participating program. Visits will occur in 2018 and 2020. PJAC,
child support, service provider partners, and legal staff who have
direct interaction with the implementation of either PJAC or control
services will be interviewed. Interviews with staff will be either
one-on-one or small group, depending on staffing structure, roles,
and the number of individuals in a role.
Purpose
and use of information: The goal of the implementation study is to
provide a detailed description of the PJAC programs – how they
are implemented, their participants, the contexts in which they are
operated, and their promising practices. The purpose is to inform the
impact analysis and provide information to practitioners and
policymakers within multiple levels of government as well as in other
sectors. The information collected will be used to document the
actual operational experiences of agencies and participants over the
course of the grant period.
Privacy:
The information provided during these interviews will be used for
research purposes only. It will only be discussed in combination with
other people’s responses and reported together as a group. No
information that identifies the individual will be disseminated
outside the evaluation team, except as required by law.
Voluntary
Participation: Providing information for the purposes described is
voluntary. Verbal informed consent will be obtained.
Estimated
time: Each interview is expected to take no more than 60 minutes.
Construct
|
Staff
Interview Topics
|
Staff
Characteristics and Background
|
|
Program
planning and design
|
Why
grantee applied for PJAC grant
Decision
making process and the role of child support agency leadership
at the state and county levels in deciding to apply
How
organizational culture and leadership within the child support
agency supports or poses barriers to applying for demonstration
grants or proposing innovations in child support procedures and
policies
Grantees’
prior experience with similar programs and how prior experience
informed the PJAC design
Design
and planning process for PJAC, including any changes if the
program is a continuation or adaptation of past efforts
Involvement
of partners and other community organizations in the planning
process
Key
design decisions made during the PJAC planning year and
rationale
Challenges
encountered during the planning process and steps taken to
address them
|
Local
Context and Service Environment
|
State
or local child support structure, processes, and policies
Effect
of demographic, economic, or social forces on PJAC operations
Linkages
with and influences of public systems (e.g., criminal justice,
TANF, court system)
Other
state or community organizations providing any PJAC-like
services; how the services provided by these organizations
differ from the PJAC program; whether and how these services may
have affected the PJAC program; and use of these other services
by noncustodial parents (in either program or control group)
|
Study
Participant
Selection
|
Applying
PJAC eligibility criteria
Description
of the process used to select cases for contempt, and the
process to randomly assign cases to the PJAC sample
Description
of the characteristics of PJAC sample members, anticipated
service needs, and barriers to child support payment
Review
of specific cases to get better understanding of the study
sample
Challenges
of study enrollment
|
Implementation
of PJAC Elements
|
Description
of case assessment process, including ability to pay
Discussion
of process and content of contacts with custodial parent
Description
of outreach and engagement strategies and efforts
Description
of enhanced investigation use and process
Description
of case conferencing process
Description
of development of case action plans
Description
of case management process
Description
of enhanced child support services, including suppression of
enforcement actions
Description
of use of enforcement/contempt actions for PJAC cases and
decision-making process
Description
of grantee’s approach to addressing domestic violence and
providing related services
Description
of supportive services, including services offered,
collaboration with partners, referral and follow-up processes
Description
of any formal screening or assessment tools used in delivery of
PJAC service elements
For
all PJAC components, structure of services and fidelity to
intended model
Use
of procedural justice-informed approaches in delivering PJAC
elements
Review
of specific cases to walk through service delivery approaches
|
Program
participation
|
Typical
duration of participation in the demonstration
Criteria
used by staff for terminating services to a participant and
initiating contempt
Challenges
to promoting sustained participation
Strategies
used to encourage initial and ongoing participation; perceived
success of each strategy; new strategies under consideration to
encourage participation
Incentives
used to encourage participation in services; types of
incentives; timing and frequency of incentives; staff
perceptions about which incentives appear to best promote
participation
Staff
perceptions about particular subgroups of noncustodial parents
who appear most and least responsive to PJAC
Strategies
used to re-engage noncustodial parents who have stopped
participating; which partners are involved; point at which staff
cease attempts to re-engage
Any
changes to these strategies over time and rationale for changes
|
Target
Outcomes
|
Goals
for PJAC program
Expected
outcomes for noncustodial parents, how planned services will
contribute to these outcomes, and anticipated length of program
participation needed to achieve outcomes
Program
approach to monitoring progress toward goals
|
Implementation
Systems Supporting PJAC
(technical assistance)
|
Description
of PJAC staff roles in delivering services and activities
PJAC
staff selection and training, staff development, information
system infrastructure
Use
of PJAC technical assistance
Organizational
climate and culture influence on PJAC implementation
Processes
used to adopt or modify existing service components or
implementation systems for PJAC
Challenges
associated with the implementation systems for PJAC
Use
of data systems (including project MIS) to track program
participation and services, monitor progress toward goals,
oversee partner performance
Helpfulness
of management information system designed for PJAC, helpfulness
of technical assistance for using MIS
|
PJAC
Implementation
Challenges and Lessons
|
Best
practices and lessons for replication
Challenges
in operating PJAC and meeting goals
Strategies
to address challenges
Modifications
to implementation plans that have occurred since PJAC began; why
modification was necessary, timeline for monitoring and
roll-out, how changes affected service delivery
Potential
future modifications to the implementation plan
Identification
of significant gaps between the services participants need and
those offered by the demonstration
Lessons
learned about facilitators and barriers to making changes in
child support policy and practice
Changes
informants would make to the demonstration if they were starting
over
Most
important strengths of the demonstration
Most
important lessons learned about implementing the demonstration
Suggestions
for how OSCE can best support and encourage child support agency
leadership to adopt innovations in child support policy and
practice
|
Business
as Usual for non-PJAC Participants
|
Description
of non-PJAC staff roles in delivering services and activities,
including role of legal and court staff
Description
of enforcement and contempt process for non-PJAC participants
Description
of services offered by agency to non-PJAC participants,
including referral and engagement process
Use
review of specific cases to walk through service delivery
approaches
|
Organizational
Characteristics of PJAC Agencies
|
Description
of organizational structure and management (overall and for PJAC
grant) including roles and responsibilities, staffing,
supervision, training, etc.
Influence
of organizational characteristics in service delivery
implementation
Historical
experience with procedural justice
Organizational
buy-in to PJAC approach, staff perceptions of nature of problem
PJAC is designed to address, whether PJAC services are aligned
with addressing this problem, perceptions of usefulness of PJAC
services for noncustodial parents
Nature
of guidance from OCSE on program management; usefulness of
guidance and need for additional guidance or support
|
Partner
agencies/referrals
|
Description
of partner agency, including services offered, mission, history,
background, organizational structure, and management
Description
of service delivery partnerships, including type of referrals
made, frequency of referrals, quality of services
Challenges,
successes, and lessons learned
Extent
to which services are available and accessible in the community
Extent
to which participants follow up on referrals and take up
services
|
File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
File Title | Staff Interviews for Sites Testing CBE |
Author | Emily Brennan |
File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
File Created | 2021-01-22 |