Changing Systems

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Abstract

Reclaiming Futures (RF) is an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that seeks to improve outcomes for drug-involved youth in the juvenile justice system. The first phase of Reclaiming Futures (2002–07) was a ten-site demonstration effort that relied on organizational change and system reform to improve substance abuse interventions for youthful offenders. As part of a national evaluation of Reclaiming Futures, the Urban Institute and Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago conducted biannual surveys in each community participating in the initiative. The surveys measured the quality of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment systems as reported by expert informants in each community. The pattern of their responses over six survey administrations (December 2003 to June 2006) suggests that RF is a promising strategy for improving substance abuse interventions for youth. Positive and significant changes were reported in all ten RF communities. In several communities, most quality indicators measured by the evaluation improved significantly during the course of the RF initiative.

Introduction

Reclaiming Futures (RF) is a system reform initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) that focuses on substance abuse interventions in the juvenile justice system. The first phase of Reclaiming Futures (2002–07) was a ten-site demonstration effort that worked to change the interorganizational systems used to deliver substance abuse services for young offenders. As part of a national evaluation of Reclaiming Futures, the Urban Institute and Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago conducted biannual surveys in each community participating in Reclaiming Futures. The surveys tracked the quality of juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment systems as reported by twenty to forty expert informants in each community.

The survey approach was selected largely for practical reasons.The evaluation had to be able to monitor the impact of system change in ten unique communities using ten different reform strategies. Measuring these changes with client-based, administrative data in all ten RF communities was impossible due to the limitations of existing data systems. Repeated surveys of local informants represented a cost-effective alternative for monitoring the highly varying changes that were expected to occur during a complex, multisite, and multifaceted reform initiative.

Surveys were conducted every 6 months between December 2003 and June 2006. Survey respondents were the people in each community identified as those most qualified to assess the overall effectiveness of their local juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment systems. Across the ten RF communities, the pool of survey respondents included from twenty to forty people per site.The total response rate averaged 70 percent, with the lowest rate of 63 percent occurring in the first administration of the survey (December 2003), and the highest rate of 73 percent occurring in the third administration (December 2004).

Each respondent answered fifty-eight questions about the quality and effectiveness of the local juvenile justice and substance abuse treatment system.The fifty-eight individual items were then compiled into thirteen multiquestion scales or indices, which measured system changes in three categories: administration, collaboration, and quality. Index scores were calculated as the numerical average of a person’s answers to all the questions making up the index.These scores were compared over time to assess the direction and magnitude of system change in each RF jurisdiction

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