The Kinship Navigator program was a three-year grant awarded to Community Coalition by the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Administration on Children, Youth and Families. The goals of the project were to 1) help kinship caregiver families identify and access appropriate and meaningful service; 2) execute an effective public/private partnership to implement a Kinship Navigator program; and 3) build evidence regarding best/promising practices to meet the health and wellness needs of kinship families.
Team members from PARC completed a rigorous evaluation that included both process and outcome evaluation components. The process evaluation assessed the implementation of the project, as well as the linkages formed between the collaborative partners to help ensure that identified needs of children, youth, and families were met. The outcomes component examined how the approaches used in this demonstration project affected key outcomes related to a) adult and child protective factors, well-being and functioning and b) systems-level change including community awareness about Kinship Caregiver issues and resources, collaboration between public and private sectors, and changes in local institutional practices and policies for kinship families.