EVALUATION
Watch videos of FATHER Project participants describing the impact of the program in their lives:
In 2010, a Return on Investment Study was conducted by Wilder Reserach for the FATHER Project, a program of Goodwill/
Easter Seals Minnesota with the goal of describing the economic impacts of this program designed to promote enhancement of parenting skills and economic stability for families and children. The executive summary and full report are both available on the Wildren Research website.
| FATHER Project Activities and Impact |
 |
|
Case Parenting Job Placement and Employment Services Child Support Education Family Law Services |
Improved parenting attitudes and knowledge Increased commitment to fatherhood Increased contact with children Increased earnings: Job placement, retention and Advancement |
Increase time spent with children Increase quality of parenting involvement with children Increase earnings and career advancement Increase length of job retention Increase in paternity establishments and child support payments |
Improved well-being of children and families Increased community involvement, leadership and volunteerism |
If you click on the text description of each outcome in the chart that is above, you can watch a video of a FATHER Project participant describing the impact of the program in that impact area. If you click on the chart images (
), you can see graphs of preliminary qualitative measures of this outcome. You may also download this more extensive logic model for the program.
The FATHER Project evaluates its work through a wide range of ongoing performance measurements, and additional evaluations to capture the impact and learning of the program.
Ongoing Performance Measurement Tools:
| Intake and Orientation | Outputs (Program Participation) | Outcomes (Program Impact) |
|
Service Level Determination At orientation:
One-on-One with Advocate:
Collected by Program Coordinator:
|
Sign-in sheets:
Spreadsheets to track and summarize participation:
Participant satisfaction:
|
After 12 Parenting (Latino or Meld) groups:
After ERT completion:
Ongoing:
After 12 Empowerment Groups:
After Play and Learn Groups:
Completed by CMLS Attorney:
Completed by Child Support Staff:
|
Color code for the chart:
- Red = Advocate administers
- Blue = Project Coordinator administers
- Brown = CMLS Attorney administers
- Green = Employment Consultant
- Orange =Child Support Staff
- Purple = AAFS Empowerment Group Facilitator
Instruments:
Several instruments are be used to collect data. Some of these tools are part of the standard tracking of participants within the Mission Services Division of Goodwill/Easter Seals. Others are existing, validated research instruments recommended by technical partners, and still others are instruments developed specifically for the FATHER Project. The instruments to be used include:
- Application for Services (Goodwill/Easter Seals, Mission Services Division) to track demographic information
- Contact with children assessed using the Father / Child Contact Form
- The Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI-2) to assess parenting and child rearing attitudes
- Employment Placement/Advancement Verification Form to track employment outcomes
- Child Support outcomes assessed using existing Hennepin County Child Support data tracking procedures and tools
- Legal Services outcomes measured using survey regarding knowledge of key family law issues (developed at FATHER Project, delivered in orientation) and increased contact with children before and after receiving intensive legal services (Father-Child Contact Form)
- A focus group protocol developed for this project to be administered annually.
The Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory (AAPI) is designed to assess the parenting and child-rearing attitudes of adult and adolescent parent and non-parent populations. Based on the known behaviors of abusive parents, responses to the AAPI provide an index of risk for practicing parenting behaviors known to contribute to the maltreatment of children. The present version (AAPI-2) is the revised and re-normed version of the original inventory first published in 1979. Responses to the AAPI-2 provide an index of risk in five specific parenting and child-rearing behaviors:
Construct A: Inappropriate Expectations of Children
Construct B: Parental Lack of Empathy
Construct C: Strong Belief in the Use of Corporal Punishment
Construct D: Reversing Parent-Child Roles
Construct E: Oppressing Children’s Power and Independence
Data Collection Procedures:
A detailed description of the data collection procedures used in the FATHER Project are attached here in a Word document.