Program Reviews of Oregon’s Independent Living Programs

Opportunity

Working with the Oregon Department of Human Services, we conducted program reviews of Oregon’s Independent Living Programs (ILP) that assist youth who are aging out of foster care to gain the skills they need to live independently.

Approach

Collecting data

Independent Living Programs in Oregon provide valuable services to youth aging out of foster care. These services—contracted out to local non-profits, for-profits or tribes—can include training in daily skills like money management, household maintenance, transportation, employment readiness, and more. They can also include educational assistance in the form of tutoring, study groups, college tours, and information on financial aid/scholarship applications.

HSRI led a team of reviewers—including a state ILP representative, an ILP peer reviewer, and an ILP youth reviewer—to conduct staff interviews, youth focus groups, and caseworker focus groups at 19 ILP sites across Oregon. Additionally, audits of case records allowed us to explore adherence to contract guidelines. These diverse perspectives enabled us to provide a comprehensive description of each site’s unique processes, successes, challenges, and to give targeted recommendations for improvement.

Sharing findings

Our team held exit debriefings with constituents after completion of each review. Covered topics included general themes, successes, challenges and recommendations for program improvements. Upon completion of each program review, we synthesized the information collected by the entire team of reviewers into a formal program-specific report. We distributed these to the state ILP Coordinator, ILP staff and local DHS program managers within 30 days of the exit debrief. These expedited debriefings and written reports allowed directors to immediately begin work on any necessary program improvements.

Once all the individual program reviews were completed, we developed a comprehensive final report that synthesized the information gathered across the 19 different sites, documenting the extent of program adherence to ILP contract performance measures, and provided recommendations for program improvements.

Impact

Independent Living Programs give youth an opportunity to learn valuable skills necessary to make a successful transition from state or tribal custody to living on their own in the community.

Our study findings assisted ILP providers in Oregon to improve programs to better serve youth aging out of foster care.