Overview: Many of the programs that TIER evaluates serve populations facing significant structural and systemic barriers to their well-being, including families involved in the child welfare system, families experiencing challenges related to substance use, and parents and young adults involved in the adult or juvenile criminal justice systems. TIER’s evaluations are framed by multi-level contexts that influence child and family development and well-being, striving to avoid focusing on individual-level factors as explanations for the challenges families face.
Learn more about each of these evaluations by clicking on the arrows.
Adaptation and Use of Evidence-Based Home Visiting for Justice System-Involved Young Mothers
Project years: 2017–2020
Description: Funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this multi-phase project explored opportunities and challenges with adapting evidence-based home visiting for young parents who are involved in the criminal justice system. The project included secondary analyses of outcomes from the Massachusetts Healthy Families Evaluation, qualitative studies of home visiting programs in Florida and Massachusetts, and a national scan of home visiting programs offering services to parents involved in the criminal justice system.
Publications:
National Scan of Home Visiting Programs for Justice System-Involved Parents
Evaluation of FIRST Steps Together
Project years: 2020–2021
Description: Funded by the Tufts Initiative on Substance Use and Addiction and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, this study examined how FIRST (Families In Recovery SupporT) Steps Together, a home visiting program delivered by peer recovery specialists cross-trained in parenting support, uniquely supports parents in recovery from substance use disorder. The evaluation included qualitative interviews and focus groups with staff and families and a pilot of measures to examine parents’ satisfaction with the program, recovery capital, and parenting protective factors over time.
Publications:
Evaluation of the Family Preservation Project
Project years: 2026–2028
Description: The Family Preservation Project (FPP), a collaboration between the Committee for Public Counsel Services and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, and implemented by regional legal aid programs in Massachusetts, offers pre-petition support to families at risk of child removal by advocating with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF), appealing DCF decisions, connecting families to community resources, and accessing additional legal services to support families’ challenges. TIER’s mixed methods evaluation aims to build a better understanding of the families FPP serves including their strengths and needs, systems involvement, services received, and progress or barriers experienced throughout their DCF-involvement; measure families’ outcomes; and assess potential economic benefits of FPP.
Evaluation of the Healthy Families Massachusetts Partnership with Legal Key Partnership for Health and Justice
Project years: 2021–2026
Description: Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM) has collaborated with Legal Key Partnership for Health and Justice (formerly Medical Legal Partnership Boston—MLPB) since 2015 to build capacity among home visitors to address barriers and challenges families face (e.g., eviction, custody loss, immigration-related matters) through legal problem-solving before situations escalate into legal crises. TIER has been conducting a mixed methods evaluation of this collaboration, including in-depth coding and analysis of textual data from HFM’s management information system and focus groups and interviews with home visitors and families who have benefited from the HFM-Legal Key collaboration.
Publications:
Collaboration Between Healthy Families Massachusetts (HFM) and Medical Legal Partnership Boston (MLPB): Enhancing Home Visiting to Advance Equity
Evaluation of Roca Young Women
Project years: 2022–2028
Description: With support from Roca, Inc., TIER is conducting a multi-year mixed methods implementation and outcomes evaluation of Roca Young Women’s programming. Roca Young Women exclusively serves a population of young women in Massachusetts and Connecticut who have faced complex trauma, violence, and multisystem involvement offering an intensive 3-year behavioral health intervention model. The evaluation examines the unique characteristics, risks, and challenges of Roca participants; the ways in which participants use Roca’s services; and outcomes for participants.
TIER recently received funding from the William T. Grant Foundation to conduct a study exploring how Roca helps to reduce the frequency and impact of child welfare and criminal justice systems involvement for young women. The study will focus on Roca’s unique model and approach to service delivery that works at the policy-, community-, and participant-levels.
Publications:
Roca: Working with Traumatized Young Women
How Roca Supports Young Women Experiencing Human Trafficking
The Role of the Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program (PAT) in Supporting Families Impacted by Substance Use
Description: With funding from the Elevance Health Foundation (2024–2027), TIER is collaborating with PATNC on a project focused on enhancing PATNC’s resources and guidance for working with families impacted by substance use. Through a survey, scan of substance use screening tools, qualitative data collection, and a national Affiliate Learning Community, this project explores how PAT affiliates are currently working with families impacted by substance use to the strengths and limitations of the PAT model when working with this special population, and to identify resource gaps and needs. Informed by TIER’s work, PATNC will develop and pilot new resources, and TIER will conduct a process evaluation to understand how these resources are being implemented in the PAT network.
The Role of the Parents as Teachers Home Visiting Program (PAT) in Supporting Families Involved with the Child Welfare System
Project years: 2020–2027
Description: TIER has been collaborating with Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC) on a series of evaluation activities focused on improving PATNC’s services for families involved with the child welfare system (CWS). Components of this project have included: a national survey of affiliates on their work with families involved with child welfare; multi-state site visits including focus groups with families, home visiting staff, and CWS workers; affiliate-level and state-level Learning Communities focused on informing policy and resource-development; and a mixed methods process evaluation examining state and local program implementation of PAT’s new tailored services package and, more broadly, how states and programs are tailoring services for families navigating CWS.
Publications:
Journey Mapping PAT Participant Experiences Navigating Custody Disruptions