Developing and Implementing a Cross-Site Evaluation of Project LAUNCH
Abt Associates was selected by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to conduct a cross-site evaluation of the Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health program (Project LAUNCH), which promotes the healthy development and wellness of young children from birth to eight years of age.
Project LAUNCH grantees build on their existing health, behavioral health and social service systems to develop and implement plans for young child wellness. The program is administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
A total of 24 Project LAUNCH grantees are part of the cross-site evaluation. Abt Associates – in addition to activities associated with the evaluation – provides assistance to grantees in implementing grantee-level evaluations and in reporting data on a semi-annual basis to a web-based data system for performance measurement. Abt also is supporting grantee and evaluator meetings, and is funding seven grantees to conduct special studies of child outcomes.
The cross-site evaluation will provide a detailed exploration of the effectiveness of collaboration and coordination between state, territorial, tribal, and locally-based service networks in increasing access to evidence-based promotion and prevention programs for young child wellness. The cross-site evaluation also will provide information about overall implementation strategies and outcomes of the initiative on the state, tribal, and community-level health and social service systems, as well as the health and well-being of children and families in specific communities.
Abt is using an initiative-level framework to document system and program level outcomes across sites in order to estimate the overall effect of population-based and targeted health promotion and prevention programs.
Read more about Abt’s cross-site evaluation of Project Launch: