Overview
There are several affiliated projects collaborating with the CICM to incorporate research projects through multiple universities and a variety of fields of study. Below are the currently listed projects:
1.
Parents and Children Together- St. Louis (PACT-STL)
The purpose of PACT-STL is to develop, implement, and evaluate strategies that prevent child maltreatment, reduce entry into the public child welfare system, and enhance the overall well-being outcomes of children and families. Funded through Vision for Children at Risk, Trish Kohl brings together grant partners, community service providers, family assistance programs, and healthcare organizations.
2.
CarePortal
CarePortal is a web-based platform that connects networks of child welfare agencies, partner non-profits, and churches to address the needs of families and children—working together with caseworkers that assess needs and make local churches aware to provide aid in real-time. Patrick Fowler and the Brown School Evaluation Center investigate long-term outcomes of children and families that participate with CarePortal.
3.
Support Over Silence for KIDS
Founded and directed by Nancy Weaver, Support Over Silence for KIDS is a bystander training program that equips community members with the skills to support caregivers navigating challenging parenting situations in public. Support Over Silence for KIDS incorporates findings from focus groups, social science theories, and adapted components of successful bystander intervention programs targeting the prevention of sexual violence.
4.
Foster & Adoptive Coalition
Principal Investigator Melissa Jonson-Reid and the Foster & Adoptive Coalition support children and families involved in the foster care system. Through the lens of educational advocacy, this project aims to explore effective education strategies for children in foster care in the St. Louis metropolitan area.
5.
Systems for Action Grant
Funded through the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for a parent empowerment initiative, Melissa Jonson-Reid and Trish Kohl investigate PACT-STL to understand and advance community-based collaboration efforts. This initiative aims to analyze funding strategies and services to understand changes in child outcomes.
6.
Social Workers Advancing through Grounded Education (SAGE)
The SAGE program recruits, trains, and financially supports Brown School students in completing a portion of their practicum in Indian Country. Manasseh Begay and the Buder Center support students in serving Native communities through Native-led programming and research.
7.
ACHIEVE Training Prorgram
The ACHIEVE Training Program is a one-year training appointment for early-career researchers interested in applying dissemination & implementation (D&I) and data science methodologies in global health. Melissa Jonson-Reid is a mentor for ACHIEVE, supporting the researchers’ professional development as they carry out research projects in low and middle-income countries.
8.
Grandi Byen
Grandi Byen is an NICHD-sponsored project based in Haiti that addresses the issue of stunted growth and development through collaboration between the Haitian public health ministry, a local hospital, US medical schools, and researchers from the Brown School — including Trish Kohl and Lora Iannotti. The research looks into the biological and psychosocial mechanisms of stunted growth, as well as feasible solutions. The intervention taps available resources with high impact potential – willing parents vested in their child’s development, affordable animal source foods for high-quality nutrition, and WASH behaviors to mitigate urban infection risks.
9.
Estimating the Impact of SNAP, WIC, and UI in the Primary Prevention of Multiple Forms of Family Violence: A Causal and Computational Approach
Derek Brown is the Primary Investigator for a new study, funded through the CDC, that will rigorously evaluate the impacts of three important, yet under-studied economic assistance programs—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Unemployment Insurance (UI)—on the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect (CAN) and intimate partner violence (IPV) during the 2001-2020 period.
10.
Building Infrastructure and Training Tools to Understand CPS Involvement and Trajectories: An Open-Source Approach
With a grant from the Administration for Children & Families, Brett Drake will be leading a project to develop improvements to administrative datasets in the child welfare system by linking them longitudinally. By linking datasets, the aim is to help other researchers conduct longitudinal studies of child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement.
11.
Child Welfare Responses during and post COVID-19 in Missouri: Trends in Administrative Data and Perspectives from Agencies and Families
Supported by a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Liwei Zhang (PI) and Trish Kohl (mentor) will work together on exploring child welfare responses during and post COVID-19 in Missouri particularly among marginalized communities using a mixed-methods design. Findings will help policymakers and practitioners determine how to effectively deliver services to at-risk families and prevent child maltreatment in the post-COVID era and plan for future crises or disasters. Findings will also help identify the best approaches for diverse communities, particularly those marginalized by poverty, race/ethnicity, and rural/urban status.