The practice of relatives or close family friends caring for others children has deep historical roots among many cultural and ethnic communities. Research has identified the need to provide services to kinship caregivers to maintain children safely in their homes. Caregiver needs include material goods, child care, health care, transportation, financial resources, and legal services. Kinship Navigation Services provide critical opportunities for service engagement and intervention. In Mississippi, scores of caregivers are wait-listed for enrollment in the Kinship Care Navigator Program (KCNP), underscoring that such opportunities are often missed. Mississippi launched its KCNP three years ago, and pilot data from a quasi-experimental evaluation suggest that it has had positive impacts. However, empirical evidence based on rigorous causal studies is required for states to use Title IV-E funds for Kinship Navigator programs (Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018). The goal of the proposed project is to provide rigorous evidence on the impact of the KCNP so that Mississippi can secure funds to sustain and scale its program. The intervention is composed of specially trained staff who use assessment tools to ensure that kinship caregivers can support the children in their care, and that services and supports are aligned with their needs. We hypothesize that designated, trained staff assessing and supporting kinship caregivers will foster greater collaboration among community resource providers and greater engagement between staff and kinship families, leading to more complete and appropriate provision of services and supports to address kinship family needs and improved safety, permanency, and well-being for children. We will use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the impact of the KCNP on child welfare outcomes and family resource needs. Participants randomized into the treatment group will receive kinship navigator services while those in the control group will receive standard services (information about community resources, and access to peer support and other groups). Primary outcomes are child safety, stability, and permanency. They will be assessed using administrative data from Mississippi Child Protective Services and program data from Catholic Charities, which is federally funded to implement the KNCP. Secondary outcomes concern the impact of the KCNP on family needs and supports. They will be assessed using participant survey data, which we will collect using three validated scales. To help improve child and family outcomes more broadly, all computer code developed for this grant will be made available open-source. All manuals, practitioner tools, and training modules will also be publicly available. We will disseminate evaluation findings widely throughout the policy and scientific communities, including publication in leading scientific journals, and policymakers and media outreach.
Funding:
Arnold Ventures, LLC
Funding Period:
11/01/2024 to 10/31/2027