Evaluating Family Support

The delivery of effective family support is a key global childwelfare issue, yet there is little consensus on what constitutesfamily support or what the best ways are to evaluate it. Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Internationally, ThinkingCritically offers a full review of the conceptual andoperational problems involved in this complex and topicalfield. Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton have brought together a team ofexperienced child care policy analysts and evaluators to presentthe current state of critical thinking alongside detailedinternational case studies. The chapters offer revealing glimpsesinto the nature of family support across the world, as well as anoverview of the challenges facing both practitioners andresearchers.

Contents Material List of Illustrations ix About the Editors xi List of Contributors xiii Foreword by Heather B Weiss xv Acknowledgements xix Part PecoraCOPYRIGHTED I: The Need for International Comparison 1 Perspective through International Comparison in the Evaluation of Family Support 3 John Pinkerton and Ilan Katz Part II: Underpinning Issues 2 Political and Technical Issues Facing Evaluators of Family Support 25 Jane Tunstill 3 Social Exclusion, Family Support and Evaluation 45 Corinne May-Chahal, Ilan Katz and Lorraine Cooper 4 The Value of Resilience as a Key Concept in Evaluating Family Support 73 Robbie Gilligan 5 Issues in Evaluating Family Support Services: An American Perspective 89 Peter 6 Comparative Research as a Method of Evaluating Systems 111 Rachael Hetherington Part III: ‘Case Studies’ from Around the World 7 National Policy Making and the Need to Evaluate Family Support in the Republic of Ireland 129 Catherine Hazlett 8 A Culturally Relevant Model for Evaluating Family Services in Hong Kong 147 Monit Cheung and Chi-Kwong Law 9 Lessons from the Evaluation of Family Support in New Zealand 169 Jackie Sanders and Robyn Munford 10 A National Evaluation of Family Support Services: An Evaluation of Services Provided by the NSPCC in the United Kingdom 191 Ruth Gardner 11 Empowering Parents: A Two-Generation Intervention in a Community Context in Northern Ireland 207 Nuala Quiery, Sandra McElhinney, Harry Rafferty, Noel Sheehy and Karen Trew 12 The Indicators Study: A Cross-Site Implementation Evaluation of the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children Initiative in America 227 Stephen Budde 13 Policy Roots and Practice Growth: Evaluating Family Support on the West Coast of Ireland 253 John Canavan and Pat Dolan 14 The Resourceful Adolescent Project: A Universal Approach to Preventing Adolescent Depression through Promoting Resilience and Family Well-Being in Australia 271 Ian Shochet and David Ham 15 Evaluation of the Contact Family Service in Sweden 291 Gunvor Andersson Part IV: Towards an International Agenda 16 International Convergence and Divergence: Towards an Open System Model in the Evaluation of Family Support 309 Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton Index 333