Appendix G: Project Description

APPENDIX G. PROJECT DESCRIPTION OMB Control #: 0970-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Family Level Assessment and State of Home Visiting (FLASH-V)

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program supports the well-being of each state’s most vulnerable parents and children.

To help figure out ways to reach more families that could benefit from home visiting, it is important to understand the challenges that communities may face in reaching caseload capacity and promising strategies they use to address these challenges. The FLASH-V project will help contribute to the field’s understanding of how programs identify potential eligible families and the outreach and referral strategies used by programs to enroll families and fill caseloads.

The FLASH-V project is being conducted by James Bell Associates in partnership with MDRC for the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The study is examining recruitment and enrollment processes

This study is designed to understand recruitment and enrollment processes in home visiting programs by examining challenges to reaching caseload capacity and opportunities to overcome those challenges. This will include a national survey of MIECHV funded home visiting program managers, semi-structured interviews with program staff, and a review of program outreach and recruitment materials.

This information will be used to contribute to our understanding of the following broad questions:

• What are current approaches used by MIECHV funded programs to identifying, reaching, and recruiting potential eligible families? What opportunities exist to increase the number of identified potential eligible families?

• What is the current landscape for programs in terms of capacity? What accomplishments and challenges have programs experienced in maintaining caseloads, including those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic?

• What types of community organizations currently refer families to home visiting? How do programs communicate and work with community referral partners? How can MIECHV funded programs work with community referral partners to strengthen the flow of incoming referrals and improve rates of successful enrollment?

We will reach out to MIECHV-funded LIAs for the study

Participants will be representatives from MIECHV funded home visiting programs. All MIECHV funded programs are invited to participate, but participation is voluntary. Responses are kept private, there is no penalty for not participating, and the federal government will not know whether or not program and staff choose to participate.

The burden on participants is low

We will ask participants from each program to complete a 30 minute survey.

We will invite about 40 programs who completed a survey to:

• participate in one interview lasting about 45 minutes

• share copies of recruitment materials and referral forms

Benefits to participation include informing future outreach and communication strategies

The information gathered through FLASH-V can be used to strengthen future outreach strategies. By shedding light on home visiting programs’ recruitment processes, the results can help identify potential solutions to challenges in reaching enrollment capacity. The results may also be used to support future technical assistance to programs, home visiting’s continuous quality improvement (CQI) work, and future evaluation efforts. Each program will be provided a $25 gift card for each staff representative who participates in a qualitative interview to offset the cost of participation.

Project Timeline

Sample recruitment and data collection activities are expected to begin in [December 2020; date may be updated based on OMB approval date].

James Bell Associates and MDRC are conducting this study

For more information:

• Project Lead: Susan Zaid – szaid@jbassoc.com

• Federal Project Officers: Laura Nerenberg – Laura.Nerenberg@acf.hhs.gov; Kelly McKenzie – Kelly.Mckenzie@acf.hhs.gov