IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v14y2024i9p181-d1476958.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Kinnecting Caregivers to Services, Resources, and Supports: Findings from an RCT of Colorado’s Kinship Navigator Program

Author

Listed:
  • Greg Forehand

    (Human Services Research Institute, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA)

  • Marc Winokur

    (School of Social Work, Fort Collins Campus, Colorado State University System, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA)

  • Lauren Alessi

    (School of Social Work, Fort Collins Campus, Colorado State University System, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA)

  • Sunil Butler

    (School of Social Work, Fort Collins Campus, Colorado State University System, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA)

  • Jeannie Berzinskas

    (Colorado Department of Human Services, Denver, CO 80203, USA)

Abstract

This study reflects the evidence-building journey for the Colorado Kinnected kinship navigator program. Colorado Kinnected expands the scope of services, resources, and supports offered to kinship families through an innovative approach that enhances an earlier Kinship Supports Demonstration Project. The Colorado Kinnected target population includes kinship caregivers caring for children and youth of any age with an open child welfare case. The primary purpose of the program is to reduce child welfare involvement by limiting traditional foster care and congregate care use when out-of-home placements are required. A randomized controlled trial was conducted from June to November 2020 to examine the impact of the Colorado Kinnected kinship navigator program on the kinship placement outcomes of 402 children and youth with an open child welfare case in seven Colorado counties. The initial study found that children and youth placed with kinship caregivers who received Colorado Kinnected services were significantly more likely to reunify with their parents after their kinship placements ended than were children and youth who received kinship supports as usual. The sustained effects study featured additional analyses of traditional foster and congregate care entry rates within six months of kinship placement for the same sample of children and youth. Children and youth in the intervention group were significantly less likely than children and youth in the control group to enter foster care or congregate care within six months after the end of their kinship placements. Overall, both analyses indicate that the Colorado Kinnected program promotes sustained permanency among children and youth in formal kinship placements. Data equity analyses to explore the contextual sensitivity of the intervention are detailed, and implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Greg Forehand & Marc Winokur & Lauren Alessi & Sunil Butler & Jeannie Berzinskas, 2024. "Kinnecting Caregivers to Services, Resources, and Supports: Findings from an RCT of Colorado’s Kinship Navigator Program," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:14:y:2024:i:9:p:181-:d:1476958
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/14/9/181/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/14/9/181/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:14:y:2024:i:9:p:181-:d:1476958. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.