TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input

Instrument 2. Prospective site conversation guide

TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input

Prospective site conversation guide

Introductory Statement

Thank you so much for talking with me today. My name is __________ and my colleague, ____________, is on the call as well. I am with an organization called [Mathematica/MEF Associates]. Thank you for your interest in pilot testing the resources developed by the TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input study! This study is sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This is not part of any HHS monitoring or auditing activities.

During this conversation, we hope to make sure you walk away fully understanding what participation in the pilot test might look like, and we hope to understand your readiness and motivation to participate. We have 30 minutes for our conversation. Your responses will help inform the sites we select to participate. Your participation is voluntary and your individual responses will be kept private. You may choose not to answer any question you do not want to answer, and you may end the conversation at any time. We plan to select eight sites to participate, including four [TANF/child support] sites. We are looking to include a diverse set of programs that vary by location, administrative structure, size, experience engaging families for their feedback, and areas for improvement.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0970-0531 and the expiration date is 09/30/2025.

Do you have any questions before we get started?

We have some questions that we’ll ask you, but we also welcome your questions throughout.

Questions

1. Let’s start with quick introductions. Can you share your name(s) and role(s)?

2. Thank you again for submitting an expression of interest. Can you share a little bit more about why you’re interested in participating in this pilot?

   1. [Study team: probe if needed based on response from expression of interest]

3. [If expression of interest indicated the site has some idea of what they want to improve] What aspects of your program might you want to improve as part of this pilot?

4. [If expression of interest indicated the site does not know what they want to improve] In your expression of interest, you noted that you weren’t clear about what aspect of your program you might want to improve. What are some of the things you might consider improving? Why those?

5. Given what you want to improve or are considering improving, how do you imagine families might be involved in that process?

   1. [If site has experience engaging families in the past] How does that compare to what you’ve done in the past to get families’ input?

6. As you think about undertaking a program improvement effort or efforts over a 12-month period that includes families’ feedback or involvement in the process, what about your program or agency will help you be successful?

   1. [Study team: Probe for:

      1. Leadership support

      2. Staff motivation and capacity

      3. Culture of learning or part of larger culture shift

      4. Related to strategic priorities]

7. What are some of the barriers or road blocks you might encounter?

   1. [Study team: Probe for:

      1. Leadership support

      2. Staff motivation and capacity

      3. Programmatic or political constraints

      4. Punitive or toxic culture (for staff)]

8. An important part of participating is using the Family Input Resources toolkit to help guide your effort. How do you feel about using a toolkit to support your work? What concerns or questions do you have?

9. What questions do you have about what pilot testing looks like?

   1. [Study team: As needed, reiterate expectations for pilot testing and answer questions.

Piloting testing includes:

• Program staff committing to leading an improvement effort that includes input from families over a 12-month period (2023-2024). Improvements can be to policy, service delivery, service offerings, operations, systems, and more.

• Referencing and using the study team’s toolkit of resources to support your improvement effort.

• Meeting with study team coaches at least monthly over the 12-month pilot testing period.

• Sharing the progress, successes, and challenges of your program improvement effort with study team coaches.

• Providing feedback to the study team about the toolkit of resources, through a monthly survey, interviews at the 6- and 12-month points of pilot testing, and a focus group a few months after the pilot testing period ends.]

Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate all that you have shared. We’ll be contacting all programs that have expressed interest to confirm whether they’ll be a part of the study. Regardless of whether you are selected, we encourage you to access the Family Input Resources toolkit on OPRE’s website.

We will work with selected sites to identify a pilot testing start date that works for you, sometime between [month and six months later]. Before we start piloting, we’ll work to draft a site agreement that outlines our role as the study team and your role as the pilot site. We will also hold a few meetings before we start piloting to learn more about your program and the people who will be involved in pilot testing, as well as help you plan for pilot testing.

If you decide that this opportunity is not right for your program at any point, please let us know. Thank you again. We expect to be back in touch by [month]. We appreciate your interest in the Family Input Study!

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