Recruitment of School Districts, Schools, ECEs, and Participants

Project LAUNCH Key Informant Interview on Systems Change Recruitment Letter: LAUNCH Community

Dear «Salutation» «LastName»:

As you are aware, NORC at the University of Chicago, under contract to the Administration of Children and Family (ACF) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is conducting a Multi-Site Evaluation (MSE) of Project LAUNCH. The purpose of the MSE is to learn more about how Project LAUNCH programs impact the health and wellness of children in communities across the country.

In order to evaluate Project LAUNCH impact on child-serving systems in grantee communities, we are requesting your participation in a less than 60-minute interview designed to build on and collect additional information about the systems activities you have entered into the data collection portal. These may include activities related to coalition building, public information campaigns, advocacy, and sustainability – as well as others that are important in your community.

Through the interview, we hope to learn more information about systems changes that have been achieved or are in process; facilitators and barriers to your systems change efforts; future plans and goals for systems activities; and the relationship between systems outcomes and your initial LAUNCH plans. The collected data will be used for evaluation purposes.

Ultimately, these data will help policymakers to make decisions about how to focus limited resources for programs targeting health and wellness of children. We recognize that your time is limited and valuable, and want to ensure that you benefit from participation. If you agree to participate, we will share with you the final evaluation report, which may assist with program planning and evaluation activities.

Please feel free to contact Shannon TenBroeck, Research Scientist, at 1-415-315-2006 or tenbroeck-shannon@norc.org if you have any questions or to schedule your interview. If we do not hear from you within two weeks of having sent this letter, we will contact you by phone.

We very much appreciate your support and participation in this important study, as well as your commitment to healthy children and families. We look forward to working with you to learn more about how Project LAUNCH impacts children and families.

Sincerely,

Kristina Hanson Lowell, PhD Shannon TenBroeck

Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation Team Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation Team

Vice President, Health Care Research Scientist, Public Health

NORC at the University of Chicago NORC at the University of Chicago

Enclosures (X)

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB number: 0970-0373; Expiration date: 10/31/2019.

Project LAUNCH Key Informant Interview on Systems Change Recruitment Letter: Comparison Community

Dear «Salutation» «LastName»:

We are writing to invite you to participate in a study of the multi-site evaluation of Project LAUNCH, a federally sponsored program that promotes the wellness of young children from birth to 8 years by addressing the physical, social, emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of their development. Project LAUNCH is designed to have a community-wide impact by enhancing the way early childhood systems work together, integrating child behavioral health services with other health services, and implementing evidence-based programs. We are studying communities that receive LAUNCH funding, as well as communities like yours that do not receive this funding, to help us learn more about services for children and families as well as child and family outcomes in communities across the country. This study is being conducted by a non-profit organization, NORC at the University of Chicago, under contract to the Administration of Children and Family (ACF) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In order to better understand child-serving systems in relation to child development, we are requesting your participation in a less than 60-minute interview designed to collect information about the policy and systems development efforts currently being implemented in your community. These may include activities related to coalition building, public information campaigns, advocacy, and sustainability – as well as others that are important in your community.

Through the interview, we hope to learn more information about systems changes that have been achieved; facilitators and barriers to your systems change efforts; and future plans and goals for systems activities. The collected data will be used for evaluation purposes.

Ultimately, the data will help policymakers to make decisions about how to focus limited resources for programs targeting health and wellness of children. We recognize that your time is limited and valuable, and want to ensure that you benefit from participation. If you agree to participate, we will share with you the final evaluation report, which may assist with program planning and evaluation activities.

Please contact Shannon TenBroeck, Research Scientist, at 1-415-315-2006 or tenbroeck-shannon@norc.org if you have any questions or to schedule your interview. If you feel there is someone better equipped to respond to the topics described above, please provide the name and contact information for this individual in an email to Ms. TenBroeck. If we do not hear from you within two weeks of having sent this letter, we will contact you by phone.

We very much appreciate your support and participation in this important study, as well as your commitment to healthy children and families. We look forward to working with you to learn more about how child-serving systems are at work in your community.

Sincerely,

Kristina Hanson Lowell, PhD Shannon TenBroeck

Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation Team Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation Team

Vice President, Health Care Research Scientist, Public Health

NORC at the University of Chicago NORC at the University of Chicago

Enclosures (X)

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB number:0970-0373; Expiration date: 10/31/2019.

Project LAUNCH Program Information for Recruitment Packet

Project LAUNCH Key Informant Interview on Systems Change Recruitment Script

INITIAL CONTACT SCRIPT

COMPARISON COMMUNITY Hello my name is ____________, and I am calling from the Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation, which is being conducted under contract to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB number: 0970-0373; Expiration date: XX/XX/XXXX. OMB approval for this data request was received ___ under OMB number 0970-0373.

As part of this evaluation, we are reaching out to communities that participate in the Project LAUNCH program as well some that do not for purposes of comparison. You may have heard that [insert community name here] was selected as one of the communities to participate in this study. For this evaluation, part of our focus is to understand characteristics of and changes to the child-serving systems in each selected community that promote healthy development and wellness in children from birth through 8 years old. I am calling you because of your role as a [insert role] with [insert program/organization name here if known]. In many communities, we find that people in your role are particularly well-positioned to provide information about the child-serving systems and activities that are in place in each selected community to promote child health and well-being.

LAUNCH COMMUNITY Hello my name is ____________, and I am calling from the Project LAUNCH Multi-Site Evaluation, which is being conducted under contract to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Administration of Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB number: 0970-0373; Expiration date: XX/XX/XXXX. OMB approval for this data request was received ___ under OMB number 0970-0373.

You may have heard that [insert community name here] was selected as one of the communities to participate in this study. For this evaluation, part of our focus is to understand characteristics of the child-serving systems in each selected community that promote healthy development and wellness in children from birth through 8 years old. I am calling you because of your role as a [insert role] with [insert program/organization name here if known] and familiarity with Project LAUNCH.

Would this be a good time to explore if you would be interested in participating in an interview about these topics?

If yes, proceed to Main Script.

If no, Is there a different time to call that would work better?

If yes, update calendar with call back date/time. Thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

If no, Is there someone in your organization who might be interested in participating?

If yes, prompt them to provide contact information; thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

If no, thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

FOLLOW-UP CONTACT SCRIPT

Hi, this is [insert name]. Thank you again for agreeing to answer a few questions to see if you might be eligible to participate in the Multi-Site Evaluation of Project LAUNCH. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. OMB number: 0970-0373; Expiration date: XX/XX/XXXX. Proceed to Main Script.

MAIN SCRIPT

I’d like to begin by talking briefly about your knowledge of your organization’s coalition-building activities, public information campaigns, advocacy activities, and activities to build funding to promote child development, health, and wellness. Would you categorize your awareness of the health promotion programs and activities that have been implemented or sponsored by your organization as Low, Medium, or High?

If person indicates medium to high awareness, proceed.

If person indicates low awareness, Is there someone in your organization who would be better-positioned to provide information about your community’s child-serving systems?

If yes, prompt them to provide contact information; thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

If no, thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

It sounds as though you would provide very useful information about your organization’s child wellness promotion activities. I would like to take a few moments to tell you about what would take place during your interview, if you choose to participate. The interview would include questions about your organization’s coalition building activities, public information campaigns, advocacy activities, and activities to build funding to promote child development, health, and wellness. We expect that the interview will take less than 60 minutes to complete, and will not link our findings or the feedback you provide to any individual or organization.

Would it be possible to conduct a telephone interview with you?

If yes, schedule the interview, confirming the telephone number they want used for the call. Then proceed with Recruitment Script.

If they say no to the interview, Is there someone in your organization that might be interested in participating?

If yes, prompt them to provide contact information; thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

If no, thank them for their time, and conclude the call.

If yes,

Thank you for agreeing to participate. I will send you a confirmation once we conclude our call. I can send this confirmation, as well as any subsequent communication via email, if you provide verbal consent for me to do so. Please note that any use of email could identify you as a research participant in the Multi-Site Evaluation of Project LAUNCH. If you would prefer not to use email, all future communication will be by mail and/or telephone. Do you consent to our using email to communicate with you about this study, even though this correspondence could indicate that you are a study participant?

If yes, Thank you. Can you please provide the email address you would like me to use for future communication about the study, if different from the one we currently have on file? I will follow up this call with an email confirmation with the details of the interview we just scheduled.
Then proceed.

If no, No problem at all. Can you please provide a mailing address to which I can mail the interview confirmation letter? Then proceed.

This is all that I was hoping to review today. Do you have any questions for me? Refer to study FAQs to respond to questions.

Thank you for your time today. I really appreciate it, and I look forward to speaking with you on [date of interview] at [time of interview]; for your convenience, I will send you a confirmation [letter/email]. You have been very helpful. Have a good day.