Evaluation of the Massachusetts Adolescent Outreach Program for Youths in Intensive Foster Care...

The John Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) gave “states more funding and greater flexibility in providing support to youth making the transition to independent living” (p.iii). This evaluation sought to determine the effects of one CFCIP-funded program on educational attainment, employment rates and stability, interpersonal and relationship skills, non-marital pregnancy births, and delinquency and crime rates (p.iii). The Massachusetts Adolescent Outreach Program for Youth in Intensive Foster Care (Outreach) is a “voluntary service that assists teenage foster youth in preparing to live independently and to achieve permanency after exiting the Department of Children and Families’ care. Youth are paired with an outreach worker who works closely with them to achieve their goals” (p.iii). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Full publication title: Evaluation of the Massachusetts Adolescent Outreach Program for Youths in Intensive Foster Care: Final Report

• “Outreach youth were more likely than control group youth to report having ever enrolled in college, and college enrollment data showed program youth to be more likely than control group youth to persist in college across more than one academic year.... Outreach youth were also significantly more likely to remain in foster care…These outcomes appear to be strongly interrelated. In other words, it is unclear how much of an impact Outreach services would have on college enrollment and persistence if Outreach did not also lead youth to remain in foster care” (p.v). • “Outreach youth also reported receiving more help than control group youths in some areas of educational assistance, employment assistance, money management, and financial support in obtaining housing” (p.v). • “Outreach group youths did not report better outcomes than control group youths in employment, economic well-being, housing, delinquency, pregnancy, or self-reported preparedness for independence. Thus, the program did not have an impact across the full range of transition outcomes that the program is designed to influence” (p.v). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2011
• Author(s): Courtney, Mark; Zinn, Andrew; Johnson, Heidi; Malm, Karin E.
• Organizational Author(s): Urban Institute; Chapin Hall, Univ of Chicago; NORC, Univ of Chicago
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies