Past Projects

Below are summaries of our previous projects.

Crown Point Community School Corporation Comprehensive Counseling Initiative for Indiana K-12 Students

To meet the growing concerns of their students, Crown Point Community School Corporation’s counselors have been moving toward full alignment with the Indiana Gold Star counseling model for a number of years (e.g. Crown Point High School has been a Gold Star school for several years.) Gold Star is based on the Indiana Department of Education’s nine school counseling program standards and aligns with the American School Counselor Association’s (ASCA) National Model. Through the Redesigning School Counseling (RSC) process, the district’s nine School Counselors are working to close several gaps between the model and what is currently offered including a better alignment of counseling programs across all grade levels.The Center for Collaborative Systems Change provides technical assistance for strategic planning and continuous quality improvement through a community participatory evaluation approach in partnership with the Leadership Team.

Partners: Crown Point Community School Corporation

Elkhart Systems of Care Expansion

The goal of the "Elkhart County System of Care Expansion: No Wrong Door," project is to enhance the capacity of The SOURCE, Elkhart's system of care (SOC). The Project expands SOC reach and depth by strategic infrastructure expansion and development of services to youth 0-17 with significant mental health challenges. In the area of service development, three priorities were identified for this project: early childhood mental health consultation; screening, assessment and diversion of youth with mental health concerns from restrictive services like juvenile detention; and early identification and intervention with at risk youth in schools and youth serving agencies. The Center for Collaborative Systems Change (CCSC) is working collaboratively to conduct an extensive external evaluation of SOC expansion and services. Using a community-based participatory approach, the CCSC team is responsible for the collection and reporting of all grant performance measures together with the development and implementation of local evaluation components in ways that capitalize on existing resources, while building capacity for sustained project evaluation. Multiple data sources are integrated into the study design to explore change over time in service outcomes, return on investment of the SOC as it relates to hospital, residential, and juvenile placement, challenges and achievements.

Partners: Oaklawn, The SOURCE

Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP)

The Dearborn County Jail Chemical Addiction Program (JCAP) serves men and women who struggle from addiction issues. The unique context of JCAP is that it serves a population residing in a jail setting, prior to sentencing for felony crimes or probation violations. JCAP men and women participate in the evidence-based programming, Criminal Conduct & Substance Abuse Treatment (CCSAT) and Thinking for a Change (T4C), which are rooted in the well-researched therapeutic intervention, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and are geared specifically for offender populations. Participants learn effective coping skills to help reduce criminal conduct and their dependence on substances.

Partners: Dearborn County Jail ,Dearborn County Community Foundation , Indiana Attorney General's Office

Project LAUNCH

Project LAUNCH (Linking Actions for Unmet Needs in Children’s Health) was a five year program federally funded with the Indiana State Department of Health and the non-profit, One Community One Family. This early childhood public health program and its evaluation sought to ensure the wellness of young children and their families in an eight county region in Southeastern Indiana through prevention and mental health promotion activities, awareness building, workforce development, improved access to evidence-based programs and high quality care, as well as enhanced coordination and collaboration across child-serving systems.

Partners: One Community One Family, Indiana State Department of Health, Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Southeastern Indiana Economic Opportunity Corporation, and Ohio Valley Opportunities.

Maternal Advocates Resource Alliance: Community Postpartum Support Training

In partnership with Maternal Advocates Resource Alliance and the IU Center for Rural Engagement, CCSC used collaborative evaluation to inform the design and implementation of the Community Postpartum Support Training. The training’s goal is to help community groups and faith-based organizations better understand the needs of pregnant, birthing and postpartum people in order to mobilize their members to decrease social isolation, increase service access, and optimize maternal health and wellness in their communities. Eight community groups from Monroe and Owen counties have received foundational knowledge about the perinatal period and have been supported in assessing their community’s needs, planning and implementing sustainable community plans, and evaluating their success. Example plans include access to labor support, advocacy, transportation, in-house childbirth education, material and resource support (e.g. car seats, food security and home cleaning), childcare services, parent support groups, and breastfeeding support.

Partners: IU Center for Rural Engagement

MIECHV Evaluation

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program was a five year federally funded project to enhance Healthy Families Indiana and Nurse Family Partnerships home visiting programs. These programs promoted maternal and child health and development among families at-risk through training, screenings, assessment, and referral coordination to community services. The evaluation of these programs assisted state agency and local program administrators with program improvement and informed policy makers regarding the impact and sustainability of the Indiana MIECHV program.

Partners: Indiana State Department of Health, Indiana Department of Child Services, Healthy Families Indiana, and Indiana Nurse Family Partnerships.

Milan School Mental Health Integration

This project evaluated the implementation of the STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand) program that promoted physical and mental health along with the prevention of substance abuse, teen pregnancy, violence/bulling, academic failure, school suspension, and drop out. As part of an individualized Student Assistance Program (SAP), trained coordinators provided counseling to small groups of students and individual students and included a strong referral component to identify problems early and refer students to appropriate resources in the community. Additionally, the school-wide component, Move2Stand targeted the prevention of bullying and harassment.

Partners: One Community One Family, Milan Community Schools.

Paramount

Process evaluation of a pilot school-based intervention that sought to identify children at risk for poor academic outcomes via student-nurse interactions and provided tiered support in accordance with a response to intervention (RTI) framework. The study included intervention fidelity, dosage and adaptations and resulted in a conceptual model of the intervention with identified core components. Study findings informed intervention expansion and replication and aided in the strategic work of the collaborative partnership to optimize student academic performance.

Partners: Paramount School of Excellence.

Substance Abuse Prevention

We also provided evaluation, capacity building, and technical assistance to coalitions and substance abuse treatment providers to help prevent and reduce substance use among youth and adults. Using the Community-Based Participatory Research model, we collaborated with local and regional coalitions to design needs assessments, collect and analyze data, make data available to the community, and facilitate the use of data to inform decision making and prevention efforts throughout Indiana. We also helped groups strategically plan and use data in their daily work practices, for continuous quality improvement and to sustain funding.

Partners: Dearborn County Jail Chemical Addictions Program, Southeastern Local Coordinating Council Collaborative Team (SEL3CT), and CEASe of Scott County.

Center for Collaborative Systems Change