Measuring the Impact of a Technical Assistance Center on Enhancing Cross-System Collaboration to Improve Supports for Kinship Families

Background and Purpose: Almost two and a half million children are being raised by kinship caregivers in the US, and many of these caregivers need support from an integrated system of care. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network (Network), with funding from the Administration for Community Living from October 2021 – September 2026, is the first technical assistance (TA) center dedicated to enhancing cross-system collaboration to improve supports for kinship families. The Network is a partnership among USAging, Zero to Three, National Caucus on Black Aging, and Child Trends. Child Trends is evaluating 1) whether the Network is implemented as intended and 2) if the TA provided results in the desired outcomes of enhanced systems of care and better supported kinship families. Child Trends is also providing evaluation TA to three sites, to build their capacity to examine their impact and make program and policy improvements

Methods: Child Trends is conducting a process study including the following data collection activities: annual document review of monthly management team meetings (n=30 meetings); observation of Network activities (webinars (n=15) and in-person meetings (n=5); annual interviews with management team (n=33) and TA recipients (n=34); annual review of TA tracking data; and surveys of general TA recipients (n=135). Child Trends is also attending intensive TA meetings and providing guidance and input into how to develop a theory of change and logic model and how to analyze focus group data.

Results: Network priority activities have been implemented as intended. The Network has a fully functioning website; provides peer learning opportunities through webinars; develops and executes an exemplary program and practice application and selection process; provides general TA to any requester, and intensive TA to three sites; disseminates learning through social media; and is building the capacity of system leaders through learning communities. The Network initially had difficulty defining who the target audience is (systems, not direct service or kinship families) and developed clearer messaging on their website and in printed materials to clarify their role. The management structure has been effective in providing TA but has been less effective in encouraging strong working relationships among partner agencies.

Conclusions and Implications: TA centers provide important support to the systems that use them and are valuable repositories of information and guidance. The Network is fulfilling this role. During this presentation, we will discuss the challenges to measuring the impact of the technical assistance center on cross-system collaboration and how this translates to improvements in services for families and ultimately better-supported families. It is easy to measure outputs, such as the number of webinars and attendance at webinars, but it is more difficult to ascertain what the webinar participants gain (e.g., knowledge) and how they use that in their service provision. It is harder still to show how changes to service provision result in better-supported families. We will discuss the implications for the field of TA centers and end with feedback received from TA recipients on the value added by the Network.