Appendix B Active Engagement Recruitment

Appendix B. Recruitment and Outreach Materials

B1: Frequently asked questions about the study – for program staff

Frequently Asked Questions:

Assessing and Describing Practice Transitions Among Evidence-Based Home Visiting Programs (ADAPT-HV)

What is the ADAPT-HV study and the Assessing Strategies to Promote Children’s Engagement and Active Participation in Virtual Home Visits study?

The ADAPT-HV study seeks to identify, develop, study, and disseminate evidence-informed resources and strategies that early childhood home visiting programs may use to strengthen home visiting services, and, ultimately, achieve better outcomes for children and families. This study is focused on learning about virtual engagement strategies that home visiting programs are implementing to promote children’s active engagement and participation in virtual visits.

What activities are involved in the study?

The study uses rapid cycle learning to identify, refine, and test various virtual engagement strategies. Data collection activities include a series of focus groups with program staff and families and feedback collected via online questionnaires. The study will be conducted by four home visiting programs.

What will study participants do?

• A designated site liaison at each home visiting site will work with the ADAPT-HV study team to schedule and recruit program staff and families for focus group sessions. The liaison will be responsible for managing communication between the study team and staff at participating program sites.

• Program staff (including, the program director, managers, supervisors, and home visitors) will participate in five to six virtual focus group sessions lasting between 60 and 90 minutes to discuss their perceptions of the utility of virtual engagement strategies and identify areas for improvement. At the beginning of each focus group, participants will be asked to complete a brief online survey to provide some demographic characteristics.

• Families will engage in two 60-minute virtual focus group sessions facilitated by the ADAPT-HV study team, to share their perceptions of home visiting services and discuss suggestions for ways home visiting programs can improve their interactions with children during virtual visits. At the beginning of each focus group, participants will be asked to complete a brief online survey to provide some demographic characteristics. Participants will be offered a $40 gift card for their participation in each focus group.

• Home visitors who work directly with families will implement a selected virtual child engagement strategy and will complete a weekly questionnaire about their experiences implementing virtual engagement strategies with children. Home visitors will also share a web-based form with families at the end of virtual home visits and ask families to complete and submit the form to the study team. The form asks about families’ impressions of the strategies home visitors use to engage their children during virtual visits.

What programs are qualified to participate in the study?

Early childhood home visiting programs that receive funding from the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program, and that currently use or are willing to develop and try strategies for engaging children during virtual home visits are eligible to participate. The study seeks to include programs with diverse characteristics, including service delivery modality (virtual or hybrid), geographic location, program size, home visiting model, age ranges of participating children, and community-level race and ethnicity.

How will the study select programs for participation?

The ADAPT-HV study team is looking for programs that are potentially interested in participating in the study. The team is also gathering recommendations from federal staff, state awardees, researchers, technical assistance providers, and others for programs that might be a good fit for the study. The study team will conduct outreach by email and telephone to potentially interested programs to provide further details about the study, assess eligibility for the study, and discuss programs’ willingness and availability to participate.

When will this take place, and how long will programs participate?

The length of time required for study participants and participating programs is approximately [#] months between [DATE] through [DATE] 2024.

How will responses to questionnaires and focus group discussions be protected?

Information collected will be kept private to the extent permitted by law.

For questionnaires, privacy means that only the study team will have access to the responses and that their individual responses will not be shared with any home visiting program or local or state agencies or identified in any report. For questionnaires administered to families, the web survey will include a consent form explaining that home visitors will not have access to any families’ responses.

At the beginning of each focus group session, the facilitator will explain and ensure all participants understand the purpose of the study, their privacy rights, and that their participation in the study is voluntary. The focus group facilitators will ask respondents not to share any information they hear from others during the group. Focus groups will be recorded, and recordings, notes, and transcriptions will be saved to a secure drive and only the study team will have access.

Who is conducting the ADAPT-HV study?

The Policy & Research Group (PRG) is conducting this project in partnership with Mathematica, on behalf of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and in collaboration with the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

Interested in participating?
Participation in the study is completely voluntary, and programs and individual participants can withdraw at any time for any reason without penalty. If you are interested in participating, please contact Teresa Smith, project director, at (225)-281-3783 or teresa@policyandresearch.com.

Where can I get more information about the study?

If you would like more information about the ADAPT-HV study, please contact Teresa Smith, project director, at (225)-281-3783 or teresa@policyandresearch.com.

B2: Focus group recruitment flyer for families

Content:

• “Parents & Caregivers, JOIN OUR FOCUS GROUP!”

• “TO REGISTER: Contact your home visitor”

• “Join us for a 1-hour discussion on your virtual home visiting experience!”

• “Participants will receive a $40 gift card as a token of appreciation!”

• “Date and time are to be determined.”

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. The OMB # for the described information collection is OMB#: 0906-XXXX and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.