Recent Projects
Our work over the years has covered a number of policy subjects, including:
Child Welfare Related Projects
Evaluation of initiative, led by the Maryland-based Center for Adoption Support and Education and funded through multiple national foundations, designed to establish national standards for the training in adoption-competency of mental health professionals and a model for competency-based training (2007 to present).
Needs assessments to inform the development and implementation of a Virginia Department of Social Services partnership with United Methodist Family Services of Virginia to integrate Virginia’s Child Services Systems Transformation Practice Model into independent living practices and to establish an organized, structured, and consistent program of services and training for older youth is established across DSS regions; ongoing comprehensive evaluation of initiative (2009 to present).
External comprehensive evaluation of statewide post-adoption services network managed for the Virginia Department of Social Services by United Methodist Family Services (2002 to present).
External comprehensive evaluation of Virginia Rural Adoptive Family Initiative (RAFI), a Children’s Bureau-funded project involving public and private collaboration to conduct targeted recruitment of adoptive homes and to reduce barriers to adoption in rural areas (2003 to 2008).
External comprehensive evaluation of the Quality Improvement Center for Adoptions, a five-year national demonstration project funded by the Children's Bureau and operated by the United Methodist Family Services of Virginia; provided leadership to evaluation team and cross-site evaluation involving three regional projects, development of project products, and dissemination of findings and products in state and national venues (2001 to 2007).
External comprehensive evaluation of federally-funded demonstration project Healthy Marriage project designed to strengthen relationships of low income new/expecting parents; Bethany Christian Services of Virginia (2006 to present).
Education Related
Developed Parent Guide to Student Discipline Policies in Virginia (2008).
Developed Issue Brief on Zero Tolerance Discipline Policies for the Virginia State Board of Education in response to Virginia General Assembly request (2005).
Developed Virginia Board of Education Student Conduct Policy Guidelines pursuant to Virginia statute (2004; updated 2005, 2006, and 2007).
Conducted study of Student Attendance/Truancy Intervention Practices in Virginia (2005, updated 2006).
Conducted comprehensive evaluation of Virginia’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools program involving collection and analysis of data from 134 school divisions (1995 to 2008).
Program development, consultation and evaluation services for federally-funded Community Service Program for Expelled and Suspended Students involving 18 project sites (2003 to 2007).
Developed Virginia’s Annual Report on Discipline, Crime, and Violence in Schools (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008).
Coordinated development of the federally-funded Prevention Through Information - Virginia (PTI-VA) initiative involving development of successful grant proposal, of curricula and related materials, and of content for online tutorial to strengthen the capacity of school divisions to use discipline, crime, and violence date for school safety and prevention planning (2005-2008).
School Safety
Development of Virginia School Resource Officer Training Curriculum and School Security Officer Training Curriculum designed as a standardized, competency-based curricula for online delivery to SROs and SSOs throughout Virginia (currently in development).
Authored Parent Guide to Student Discipline Policies in Virginia for the Virginia Department of Education (2008).
Authored/Edited Resource Guide for Crisis Management and Emergency Response in Virginia Schools for the Virginia Department of Education (2007).
Developed Virginia’s Campus Security Officer Basic Training for online delivery to persons seeking certification as a college/university campus security officer through the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services (2008).
Developed Juvenile Law Handbook for School Administrators (1997; updated 1999, 2002, 2004).
Prevention
Development of curriculum content for Virginia Rules, a law-related education program of the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia. An initial core curriculum of 17 lessons, including student handouts, worksheets, and pre-/post-tests, designed to be taught primarily by law enforcement officers to middle and high school students. Lessons are correlated with Virginia Standards of Learning (2009).
Program development, consultation and evaluation services for Governor’s Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (GOSAP) including –
External evaluation of the Governor’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities
Program, involving development of RFPs, cross-site evaluation of all funded-projects, and development of quarterly summaries and comprehensive annual reports (1996 to present).
Development of GOSAP’s Annual Report to the General Assembly of Virginia (2003 to present).
Consultant in development of Governor’s Youth Community Service and Civic Engagement Grant Program; development of RFP and coordination of application review process; design/implementation of cross-site evaluation; TA to grantees (2005 to present).
Consultant to state-level interagency GOSAP Collaborative in the successful development and execution of a memorandum of understanding addressing programming principles and grants program standards to ensure that only evidence-based programs are implemented statewide; ongoing consultation with Collaborative Director/members (2004 to present).
Author of Our Common Language primer on prevention terms and principles.
Developed Protect and Respect intergenerational initiative involving statewide needs assessment focusing on crime and safety issues affecting older Virginians, development of RFP for grants program, and design and implementation of project evaluation (2003 to 2006).
Examples of Other Projects
Developed KIDsafe Virginia elementary personal safety curriculum, high school crime prevention curriculum and guides for parents of elementary and high school students (2002).
External evaluation of State Incentive Project, a 3-year, $9 million to promote science-based prevention throughout Virginia; evaluation focused on local- and state-level outcomes at the client and systems levels and was part of a national, multi-state cross-site evaluation (1999-2002).
Founding Director of the Virginia Effective Practices Project, based at James Madison University, to develop professional and community capacity to engage in evidence-based practices in the areas of youth substance abuse and violence prevention and other adolescent problem behaviors (1998-2002).
Developed Fostering School-Law Enforcement Partnerships, a technical assistance handbook developed for the National Resource Center for Safe Schools for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Crime Prevention (2002).
Designed comprehensive statewide evaluation for grant-funded School Resource Officer Programs (1999).
External evaluation of CLASS ACTION, a statewide law-related education program sponsored by the Office of the Attorney General (1999-2002).
Developed the Governor's Plan for A Safe and Drug-Free Virginia. Involved completion of statewide needs assessment, literature review, data collection from state-level stakeholders, identifying goals and objectives, and writing comprehensive plan (1995-1996).
Principal investigator for study of families and youth served by Virginia's Comprehensive Services Act in the Central Shenandoah Planning District, profiling client characteristics, services provided and related costs (2002).
External evaluator for multiple projects for the Virginia Institute for Developmental
Disabilities, Virginia Commonwealth University including projects on Interdisciplinary Leadership Education and Crisis Care for Children At Risk (1996-1999) and a Children's Bureau demonstration project on prevention of abuse and neglect of children with disabilities being conducted by the Virginia Institute for Developmental Disabilities (1998-2000).
Principal Investigator for a study of early reading intervention with at-risk primary students in area public school divisions. Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (1997).
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