Resource Center for Evidence-Based Prevention and Intervention Programs and Practices

In partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s Office of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF), PCCD’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has committed to the provision of resources to support the proliferation of quality prevention and intervention programs aimed at promoting positive youth development and preventing violence, delinquency, substance abuse and other problem behaviors in children and adolescents.

The Resource Center is a collaborative effort that brings together key stakeholders in the Commonwealth including the Department of Public Welfare’s Offices of Children, Youth and Families (OCYF) and Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (OMHSAS), the Juvenile Court Judges’ Commission (JCJC), the Pennsylvania Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers, the Departments of Education and Health, as well as grantees and community-based and residential service providers. PCCD manages the operations of the Resource Center, with oversight performed by Pennsylvania’s State Advisory Group, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee.

• Support for those implementing established evidence-based program models.
• Support for community planning to choose appropriate evidence-based program models for implementation.
• Support for improving the quality of interventions for juveniles in Pennsylvania.

The Resource Center is comprised of two components:

The EPISCenter promotes the proliferation of evidence-based programs by educating practitioners and providers about the practical and economic benefits of implementing and utilizing such programs and assisting communities in achieving high-quality implementation and sustainability. EPISCenter provides technical assistance surrounding program selection, program start-up, outcome measurement, quality assurance, monitoring fidelity to the models, and data management and reporting. EPISCenter provides program specific information for the following programs:

• The Incredible Years
• Multisystemic Therapy
• Functional Family Therapy
• Strengthening Families Program 10-14
• Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS)
• Olweus Bullying Prevention Program
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Life Skills Training Program
• Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care
• Aggression Replacement Training

Currently the EPISCenter is completing work on a new data collections system known as the “Integrated System for Program Implementation and Real-time Evaluation” (INSPIRE). INSPIRE is a data management system for prevention and intervention programs delivered through the EPISCenter as a service to grantees, PCCD, OCFY, and OMHSAS. This data system can be used by grantees to collect data, develop reports, and track outcomes. The data system benefits the funding agencies because statewide data can be accessed and can be used in planning processes. The system will provide information related to number of youth served, youth improvement in school attendance and school performance, and other significant data points.

EPISCenter is also tasked with providing support to Communities That Care (CTC) sites across the state. The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention-planning model combines strategic consultation, technical assistance, training and research-based tools to help communities come together to promote the positive development of youth. Communities That Care® began in 1993 as a pilot program out of the University of Washington. Since 1994, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) has supported training and technical assistance for the CTC model throughout the state.

CTC Consultants are on staff at the EPISCenter to provide direct service to all CTC sites. The EPISCenter provides support for statewide regional CTC trainings, technical assistance and training on the model, opportunities for community development, and technical assistance with sites implementing a model program. They have the internal capacity to conduct trainings on the CTC model for communities interested in beginning a new site or improving the functioning of an existing CTC.

In 2010, PCCD funded seven new CTC sites. These sites have completed local kick-off events, attended the CTC trainings, and completed the community planning process. In March 2011 these new sites were awarded funds to implement evidence-based programs to best address the needs of their respective communities. In addition, the EPIS Center has been conducting CTC “Train-the-Trainer” sessions on the model. This has developed our in-state training capacity and will clearly be an advantage when bringing on new CTC sites in future years.

For more information about evidence-based programs or CTC, please contact the EPISCenter at 814-863-2568 or via email at EPISCenter@psu.edu

The Quality Improvement Initiative (Qii)

The second component of the Resource Center is the Quality Improvement Initiative (Qii). This project is being implemented by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) based in Pittsburgh, PA. NCJJ is the independent research arm of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.

Launched in 2008, the Qii is based on relevant research identifying the qualities that youth interventions should incorporate in order to be successful. The project was initially piloted with a small group of providers in 2009 and began a demonstration phase with up to 29 providers beginning in summer 2010. The project is guided by an Advisory Group, a diverse mix of probation and provider representatives, who regularly provide their insights and experience to help inform the Qii’s implementation. Providers who participate in the Qii will be recognized on both the PCCD and NCJJ websites.

The Qii strives not to achieve perfect practice, but better practice, which helps providers look at their interventions with a critical eye towards how their work can produce better youth outcomes.

APPROACH
The Qii is an opportunity for juvenile justice providers to receive technical assistance and training for improving their interventions and measuring their outcomes. Using a guided quality improvement process, with NCCJ staff, providers form a quality improvement team and assess the current implementation of a selected intervention and the outcomes being generated. They use this information to create a dynamic quality improvement plan. This plan is then used by the quality improvement team to guide improvements to immediate needs in their service delivery, long-term needs for improving their outcomes by addressing data capacity and data collection issues, and eventually to make data informed decisions about intervention improvements.

PROCESS
Qii begins with helping providers operationalize their interventions through a self-assessment process. The Qii Self-Assessment is a structured inventory to assist juvenile justice providers in laying the groundwork for their continuous quality improvement work. Next, providers identify service delivery and youth outcome objectives and make a plan for how data will be collected. Finally, providers are trained on how to utilize data to make improvements to their interventions. Throughout the process, providers work from their quality improvement plan developed by their internal quality improvement team, from the self-assessment results and service delivery and youth outcome data. For example, this quality improvement plan may entail developing a more formal process for collecting and analyzing outcome data to determine how successful the program is in addressing delinquency risk factors. Or, the plan may address the need for a training protocol to ensure that all staff who deliver the intervention are familiar with the model, so that fidelity can be maintained.

BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATION
The Qii project has the strong support of the Council of Chief Juvenile Probation Officers, the JCJC and OCYF. These groups want to ensure that the money they spend sending youth to an intervention program is producing the intended results and that the provider can demonstrate those results through empirical data. The intent is to expand the Qii’s technical assistance support to additional providers in the years to come, but all materials and tools necessary to conduct a self-assessment and develop a QI plan are also available to all providers on the NCJJ website at http://www.paqii.org/

FOR MORE INFROMATION
NCJJ is available to answer questions and provide basic assistance to all providers who are interested in learning more about the Qii process and how it can be of benefit to their interventions, probation, and the youth they serve.

For additional information related to the Qii, please contact:

Phone: Qii Help Desk at 877-394-6732 (toll-free)
Email: Project Director Jennifer Loeffler-Cobia at cobia@ncjj.org or
Project Coordinator Teri Deal at deal@ncjj.org

Specific requests for technical assistance related to the above projects can be directed to PCCD (wposton@pa.gov) or to the contact number listed for EPISCenter or NCJJ. Requests will be approved based on the availability of resources. Currently funded sites implementing an evidence-based program or a Communities That Care project should work directly with the EPISCenter