Preserving Families: Evaluation Resources for Practitioners and Policymakers

Written primarily for evaluators and administrators who are involved in analyzing family services, this book examines the issues related to describing and evaluating social programmes for families and children that focus on keeping the family intact, rather than those programmes that emphasize removing the child from the family setting. The text offers an in-depth discussion of programme features that are important for conducting an evaluation, including programme descriptions, target populations, client outcomes, cost analysis and evaluation design. Each chapter raises issues which are pertinent to designing a comprehensive or a special focus study, including detailed descriptions of programme components. Grounded in the basic everyday experiences of public and private agencies undertaking evaluation activities, this text is appropriate for evaluators, policy makers and other advocates of children.