Community Strategies Collaboration: A Process Evaluation of the CRJ Community Strategies Division’s Residential Service Approach for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Deviant Behaviors
Community Strategies (CS) builds and enhances the capacity of many communities in New England to provide much needed services for individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) and co-morbid disorders such as mental illness or complex medical needs. As part of CRJ’s commitment to support many of our most challenged citizens, CS offers individualized treatment in residential or community-based environments to over 160 adults across New England. In an effort to demonstrate the impact of the CS model on the clients it serves, in 2008 CRJ launched an initiative to bring together two of its operational divisions — Community Strategies (CS) and the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) —for the purpose of facilitating a systematic program evaluation.
The first phase of work by the Collaborative is focused on increasing the readiness of CS for an evaluation. Recent growth combined with a major re-organization of CS services across New England means that the components of the model have been expanded. One of the implications of this change is that there are opportunities for increasing uniformity of approach wherever the model is delivered. To help identify areas for greater uniformity and develop strategies in support of this goal, the Collaborative is working to help codify the model in the context of the re-organization and determine the extent to which the approach is implemented as intended. A component of this work will entail putting a more comprehensive and streamlined measurement strategy in place to enable consistent reporting of progress measures and organizational performance over time. This information will lay the foundation for the next phase of work.
To help inform a strategic growth plan for Community Strategies, CJI, the research partner in the Collaborative, will conduct a systematic evaluation to determine the impact of CS on the individuals it serves across New England – a pre-requisite for evidenced-based practices. This is also an opportunity for CRJ to make a contribution to the field on the use of community-based approaches aimed at increasing independence and quality of life among a difficult to serve population.
