How can researchers help state agencies and the NC General Assembly better serve youth and families associated with the foster care system?

The North Carolina Collaboratory and NC Office of Strategic Partnerships (OSP) are hosting a research partnership interest meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 1:00pm – 2:30pm to discuss this government-research partnership opportunity. Please email partnerships@osbm.nc.gov to request an invitation to this virtual meeting.

The issues faced by youth and families associated with the foster care system are highly complex. To help ongoing efforts to address these issues across state government, the NC Collaboratory seeks to launch a research and evaluation initiative that can:

1. Respond in a timely manner to legislative questions to inform policy.
2. Establish long-term partnerships between and among the NC Collaboratory, researchers, state agencies, nonprofits, and communities that can use research findings to enhance and scale programs and services in counties and statewide.

Through these approaches, the NC Collaboratory is seeking research partners to help answer the following questions:

1. How can the organizations and entities responsible for tracking individuals that cross between foster care and juvenile justice systems improve tracking processes to enhance understanding of entry and exit points, trajectories, and experiences?
2. What are the drivers of homelessness and incarceration (including intergenerational relationships) among individuals that have exited the foster care system, and how can organizations and entities address those drivers?
3. What are the barriers to achieving and expediting permanency and adoption, and how do they impact Questions 1 and 2?
4. To what extent do public and private preventative approaches (e.g., programs designed to support families during crises) impact Questions 1 and 2, and what best practices exist?
5. How and to what extent is the North Carolina foster care system integrated with other systems (e.g., health, housing, and education), and how could further integration improve foster care outcomes and permanency?
6. What programs and services (including pilot initiatives and those related to substance use) already exist to address Questions 1-5, and what are the best approaches to measuring the effectiveness and scalability of those programs and services between and across counties?
7. To what extent are permanency and adoption reliable measures of success for foster care policies, programs, and services?

The NC Collaboratory identified these questions through a series of initial conversations, as well as through planning meetings that OSP convened with state agencies associated with the foster care system – including the NC Department of Public Instruction, NC Department of Public Safety (specifically, the Division of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), and the NC Department of Health and Human Services (specifically, the Division of Social Services) – as well as staff members of the NC General Assembly. This list of questions is likely to expand as the NC Collaboratory solicits additional input from researchers, state agencies, legislators, nonprofit organizations, and communities. Researchers/research teams may express interest in working on one or more of the questions above.

The NC Collaboratory was established at UNC Chapel Hill by the NC General Assembly as a funding agency to support research that directly benefits people across the state. The NC Collaboratory specializes in addressing complex issues by funding networks of researchers who can work in partnership with governments, communities, nonprofits, and private industry to advance data-driven solutions that positively impact policy and practice.