Children living in poverty are at increased risk of having learning difficulties, and often enter kindergarten with poor cognitive and social skills. Although this is influenced by many factors the lack of quality child care in many low income communities is a major contributing factor. Recently the demand for child care has been rapidly increasing due to the impact of the welfare to work legislation. In a response to these circumstances, the local United Way in Allegeny County, Pennsylvania has developed a major county-wide initiative to develop enhanced child care programs in low-income neighborhoods. This initiative employs a neighborhood based planning process and promotes family involvement in the development and the implementation of these services. The presentation will describe the comprehensive evaluation methodology being employed to assess the impact of the program. The evaluation focuses on child, family and community outcomes, and employs a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods. In this session a major focus will be on the parent/family component of the evaluation, including a detail discussion of the methods and data collection instruments being used to assess family stress, parenting behaviors, and social support. Some selected results will be presented. Finally, information will be presented regarding the important role social workers on the evaluation team have played in not only developing and implementing evaluation protocol, but in working with the community agencies (staff, advisory groups, & program participants) to facilitate the evaluation process at each program site.
Learning Objectives: 1. Recognize the lack of quality child care as a public health problem 2. Identify a comprehensive community focused intervention program to enhance child care resources 3. Define the "authentic" evaluation model being used to assess the program 4. Identify key roles for socia workers in the evaluation development and implementation process
Keywords: Child Care, Evaluation
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.