OVC Applied Research & Best Practice
SYMPOSIUM
Connecting Research and Practice
Innovate Local:
Bridging Research and Customized Solutions
8:30 am Welcome Jedd Medefind
Table Introductions
When Research and Homemade Solutions Collide
Dr. Nicole Wilke
9:00 am Research Presentations
Evaluation of Agape Children’s Ministry’s Family Strengthening Program
Dr. Johanna Greeson, Sarah Wasch & Chris Page
TABLE TALK
Improving Emotional Regulation and the Quality of Student-teacher Relationship through Child-Directed Healing Play: Evaluating a Psychoeducation Intervention among Primary-aged Children in Zimbabwe
Dr. Pamhidzayi Berejena Mhongera & Regina Chari
TABLE TALK
9:50 am Break
10:00 am Research Presentations
Using Data and Research to Revise and Improve a Locally-created Family-strengthening Intervention
Dr. Sarah Neville, George Kulanda & Dr. Laura Horvath
TABLE TALK
Evaluating the Zoe Empowers Model of Empowering Child and Youth-headed Households in Kenya Obed Masese and Reegan Kaberia TABLE TALK
11:00 am Break
11:05 am Introducing — Overcoming New books from the Research Center
11:20 am Research Practice Partnerships in the Real World Interview: Crane Network - Mim Friday & Faith Kembabazi
11:45 am Lunch & Poster Presentations
12:45 pm Peer Learning Communities Presentation
1:00 pm Principles for Developing Research-Informed, Homemade Solutions
Dr. Amanda Howard & Dr. Nicole Wilke
1:45 pm Break
1:50 pm Synthesis Activity: Think, Pair, Share 2:30 pm Closing
Presenters Research Pairs from the 2022 Research Challenge Grant Program
Johanna Greeson, Ph.D, MSS, MSLP Associate Professor
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL POLICY & PRACTICE, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Johanna Greeson, PhD, MSS, MLSP, is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. She directs the Child Well-Being & Child Welfare Specialization and is the Managing Faculty Director of the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research. Her published work includes scholarly articles and book chapters on natural mentoring, evidence-based practices for older youth in foster care, residential group care, and intensive in-home therapy. She developed a theory-based and research-informed intervention for adolescents in foster care, Caring Adults ‘R’ Everywhere, focused on the cultivation of resilience through supportive adult relationships. She received her PhD in Social Work from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Sarah Wasch, MSW
Associate Director of the Field Center for Children’s Policy
PRACTICE & RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Sarah Wasch, MSW, is the Associate Director of the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research. She has held child welfare, human services practice, and advocacy roles for over two decades, supervising programs in numerous child and family-serving organizations spanning residential treatment, foster care, and education. Sarah’s background includes presenting, training, and writing on critical topics in child welfare, with a focus on college access and success for students with experience in foster care. Sarah holds a BA from Tufts University in Child Development and Sociology and a master’s in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.
Chris Page County Director
AGAPE CHILDREN’S MINISTRY
Chris Page serves as the Country Director of Agape Children’s Ministry, where he is responsible for the leadership and discipleship of Agape’s Kenyan staff and missionaries in their work in Kisumu, Kitale, Nakuru, Lodwar, and Nairobi, Kenya. Every year, Agape rescues and rehabilitates over 900 vulnerable children living on Kenya’s streets and in governmental custody, reintegrates these rehabilitated children back with their families throughout East Africa, and conducts ongoing follow-up visits to these children until they reach the age of 18. Through Agape’s Christ-centered programs, Chris and his team have successfully reunited over 5,800 children with their families in the past 14 years. Chris holds a BS in American Politics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy Administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Chris and his family reside in Kisumu, Kenya.
Evaluation of Agape Children’s Ministry’s Family Strengthening Program
As the number of children living and working on Kenya’s streets grows, the evaluation and promotion of successful interventions that sustain the long-term stability of former street children with families is paramount to making progress with this desperately vulnerable demographic in Kenya, throughout Africa, and worldwide. Interventions like Agape Children’s Ministry’s Family Strengthening Program hold great potential to positively impact child and family functioning. This presentation will share findings from a recent evaluation of this program with the goal of improving existing programming and informing replication of similar support models at local, regional, national, and international levels.
Pamhidzayi Mhongera, Ph.D Research Associate
DEPT OF SOCIAL WORK & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
Pamhidzayi Mhongera, Ph.D is a Zimbabwean woman and a single mother of four. She is a Research Associate with the University of Johannesburg, Department of Social Work and Community Development, South Africa, and an Assistant Pastor with the General Council Assemblies of God in Zimbabwe. Pamhidzayi is also the Founding Member of Blossoms Children Community, an organization supporting Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in the kinship foster care system and young people transitioning from Residential Child Care Facilities. Her qualifications include a PhD in Social Work, an MSc in Project Planning and Development, and BSc Honours in Sociology and Gender Development Studies. As a Social Development Practitioner, she worked across sectors, developing and implementing poverty reduction and social transformational programs, including microfinance, social cash transfers, education, child protection, prison rehabilitation, family preservation, and strengthening positive youth development and staff wellness. Pamhidzayi is an alumnus of the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., and has recently collaborated in a multi-country study that explored agency among girls in marginalized contexts. Her other research projects focused on volunteer management and motivation, microfinance and poverty reduction, adolescent girls’ transitions from institutional care, pathways of resilience among children and families in adversity, educational transition services delivery, social workers in public schools, and the effectiveness of Child-Directed Healing Play in improving emotional regulation and the building therapeutic relations among primary-aged students, the recent study supported by CAFO.
Regina Chari, MSW Associate Director
REFUGE: ZIMBABWE
Regina Chari is a social worker and missionary who serves those entrusted with precious children and vulnerable communities. Regina is a TBRI practitioner with over 20 years of experience working with children and families. She and her husband Nyasha founded Refuge: Zimbabwe over 10 years ago to develop and deliver programs and practices offering healing to those impacted by abuse, neglect, and trauma. Regina holds a bachelor of social work from Michigan State University and a master of social work from Washington University in St. Louis. Regina is a mom to two daughters who are full of moxie. She believes the greatest honor she has received is the invitation into the sacred space where someone shares their story. Her passion is helping adults bring healing to their hurting children using the most important tool they have: their relationship.
Improving Emotional Regulation and the Quality
of Student-teacher Relationship through Child-Directed Healing Play: Evaluating a Psychoeducation Intervention Among Primary-aged Children in Zimbabwe
This presentation describes a research project evaluating the effectiveness of Child-Directed Healing Play (CDHP) in improving emotional regulation and the quality of studentteacher relationships among primary-aged children in Harare, Zimbabwe. CDHP is a structured, school-based intervention being implemented under the Caring Classrooms’ program, developed by Refuge: Zimbabwe. The program seeks to meet the mental health needs of children who are adversely affected by experiences or are at risk of trauma. As a psychoeducational intervention, the program utilizes the relationship between a child and a trained teacher to facilitate emotional processing through the medium of play. By utilizing emotional regulation skills and Child Directed Healing Play, the program harnesses the power of the student-teacher relationship as the vehicle for both therapeutic change (intervention) and resiliency (prevention). Thirty-one teachers from 7 Private Schools in Harare were trained and 62 children selected (31 in the intervention group and 31 in the control groups) participated in the study. The trained teachers facilitated 5, twenty-minutes healing play sessions. Using the Emotional Regulation Checklist and Student-Teacher Relationship Scale, data were collected at two intervals: pre and post-intervention and analyzed. Quantitative and qualitative results will be presented to highlight the effectiveness of the intervention and the implication for research and practice.
Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BROWN DEPT OF PSYCHIATRY & HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Dr. Neville is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Brown University School of Public Health and the Brown Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. She obtained her Ph.D. from Boston College School of Social Work in 2022, where she conducted her dissertation on children reunifying with family after living in residential care institutions in Kenya. Sarah‘s research is on children and residential care in low- and middle-income countries, including strategies for enabling children in institutions to live in safe and nurturing families, preventing them from entering institutions, and enhancing their mental health and well-being. Sarah received her BA and MA in Child Development from Tufts University.
George Kulanda
Case Management Supervisor at Child Reintegration Ctr
BO, SIERRA LEON, HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE
George Kulanda works as the Case Management Supervisor at Child Reintegration Centre, Bo Sierra Leone. With a passion for restoring family values and relationships, he has four years of experience working with street-connected children and vulnerable families. George’s background is in Sociology from Njala University Sierra Leone. His job currently includes collaboratively working with skilled social workers to identify the felt needs of vulnerable families and address those needs, working with other Social Workers from other child-focused organizations, governments, and communities to raise awareness on the importance of children permanently growing in families and possible interventions for family permanence. George likes his great team and is always open to learning new ideas.
Laura Horvath, Ph.D Director of Programs and Global Engagement HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE
Prior to joining the Helping Children Worldwide staff in November 2014, Laura was an active volunteer with Helping Children Worldwide for more than ten years, serving on and leading the Education Committee, serving as the Vice Chair and then Chairperson of the Child Rescue Center Program Team, and leading multiple Volunteers in Mission teams to Sierra Leone. Prior to officially joining the HCW team, she taught in the graduate schools of education at George Mason and George Washington Universities. Laura holds a master’s degree in English Education and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, and brings to her role an in-depth knowledge of education and a deep passion for global child welfare, the care of orphans and vulnerable children, public health, ethical missions, and sustainable community-led development programs. In addition to her work co-developing workshop curricula, SOPs, and other resources with her CRC colleagues, she’s a co-host on HCW’s Optimistic Voices podcast and loves to write articles and speak on the topics of child welfare, transitioning the model of care for orphans and vulnerable children, and sustainable development practices. Laura and her husband, David, are members of Floris United Methodist Church and have three children.
Using Data and Research to Revise and Improve
a Locally-created FamilyStrengthening Intervention
Sometimes it’s possible for organizations to use prepackaged evidence-based interventions, which come with their own evaluation frameworks and surveys ready to go. But for most small-to-mid-sized organizations, this isn’t an option. High cost, barriers to access, and lack of localized evidence are only some of the many factors that make pre-packaged solutions difficult to implement. However, innovative programs around the world have drawn from existing programs and evidence to create adapted solutions that fit their local contexts. This session will tell the story of Helping Children Worldwide’s family strengthening program, designed to be tailored to the Sierra Leonean context. We will show how Sierra Leonean cultures and values were integrated into each phase of the program, and how we designed and carried out a research study to see how effective the program was. We were then able to use all the data - the good, the bad, and the neutral - to revise the program and make it even more impactful.
Obed Masese Makori
Director VICTORY CHILD EMPOWERMENT, KENYA
Mr. Obed Masese Makori is an economist, project manager, and monitoring and evaluation specialist. He is a seasoned researcher and practitioner in child protection, care reform, household economic strengthening, and youth empowerment. He has worked with Changing the Way We Care, Kenya, as a Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning Officer and also as a Project Coordinator based in Nyamira County. He is also the Director for Victory Child Empowerment, Kenya, which runs the Royal Excellence Children Center and Care Reform Program among 3 residential care institutions. Obed is a Christian Alliance for OrphansResearch Affiliates Member and has won a grant from CAFO to evaluate Zoe Empowers’ Empowerment model targeting Child and Youth Headed Households in Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties in Kenya. Obed is also a Watson Institute Fellow, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance Member, and World Literacy Ambassador in Kenya.
Reegan
Kaberia Chief Executive Officer
ZOE GLOBAL SOUTH & KENYA COUNTRY MANAGER
Mr. Reegan Kaberia is Zoe Empowers’ Chief Executive Officer, Global South, having overseen the growth of Zoe’s empowerment program from its beginnings in 2007 to its expansion to 7 countries in Africa and India, empowering over 160,000 orphaned children and vulnerable youth to move from extreme poverty to sustainable self-sufficiency, wrapped in layers of community, and knowing they are not beyond the love of God. Previously, Reegan served as a Program Facilitator for The Plan International, Kenya, and Senior Social Worker for Compassion International. Reegan holds a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Kenyatta University, a Diploma in Community Development from Edgerton University, and an MBA focusing on Strategic Management from Kenya Methodist University. Reegan has served as the board chair for Maua Girls Secondary School, Athiru Gaiti Day Secondary School, Government Community Development Fund, and Maua Polytechnic. Reegan resides in Maua, Kenya, with his spouse and two daughters.
Evaluating the Zoe Empowers Model of Empowering
Child and Youth-headed Households in Kenya
This presentation will explore the linkage between research and practice among childcare researchers and practitioners. This session will highlight the research collaboration between Obed Masese and Zoe Empowers, which investigated the transformative impact of Zoe Empowers’ interventions on youth and child-headed households in Meru and Tharaka Nithi Counties, Kenya. Using a cross-sectional research design and a sample size of 385 program graduates, the study evaluated the effectiveness of Zoe Empowers’ three-year, holistic empowerment-based program. The session will delve into approaches towards empowering children and youth while with their families and communities. The presentation will highlight the methodology of this study, findings, conclusions, and recommendations to inform other practitioners, researchers, partners, and stakeholders on holistic child and family empowerment. The study will include the perspectives of both a practitioner and a researcher to provide informed, evidence-based transition of care, child care, care reform, and household economic strengthening as a sustainable approach. The discussion will include best practices for establishing and sustaining successful collaborative dynamics that shape partnerships between research and practice, as well as innovative approaches towards effective and efficient child care globally.
Mim Friday
Head of Development VIVA,
UGANDA
Mim Friday is passionate about seeing children safe, thriving, and learning. Mim gained a BSc in Geography before becoming the best student teacher. She taught Geography to A Level for 7 years before mentoring British and International volunteers who were on ministry gap years. Mim completed a Masters in Development Management with merit in 2018. Mim moved to Uganda in 2006 before joining Viva in 2007. Mim designed and led the highly successful UKAID Girls’ Education Challenge for 11 years. She is now Head of Development. She has worked with networks in Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Faith Kembabazi Director
CHILDREN
AT RISK ACTION NETWORK (CRANE)
Faith is the Director for Children at Risk Action Network in Uganda. Faith holds a Master’s of Science in Development Management and a BA in Social Sciences in Psychology, Sociology, and Social Administration. Faith has worked in safeguarding since 2000 when serving in a church in the UK. Since then, her knowledge and enthusiasm for working for the rights of children has grown. Faith’s first role for CRANE was to manage Viva’s Quality Improvement System. Faith led the implementation of the UKAID Girls’ Education Challenge Project for CRANE from 2013 to 2024. This project saw literacy and numeracy rates skyrocketing.
Nicole Wilke, Ph.D
Director of the Center on Applied Research for Vulnerable Children & Families
CHRISTIAN ALLIANCE FOR ORPHANS
Dr. Wilke is passionate about connecting research and practice to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families. She has supported care improvement through her work with organizations serving in more than 100 nations worldwide. This has included leading international investigations related to care reform, resilience, and family strengthening, developing the Care Transition Accelerator Academy and OVC Applied Research & Best Practice Symposium, and authoring dozens of evidence-based courses and resources on improving care for children. Prior to her current role, Dr. Wilke gained field experience in child welfare as a therapist for foster and adoptive families, serving in residential care, working with children and families with disabilities, and engaging in cross-cultural ministry. She currently lives with her family in Peru.
Amanda Hiles Howard, Ph.D
Associate Professor of Psychology
SAMFORD UNIVERSITY
Dr. Howard is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Samford University. She specializes in developmental science, action research, and social psychology. Her scholarly work focuses on understanding the effects of adversity on vulnerable children and their families and improving the quality of practice being provided by the communities, organizations, and governments that serve them. She is deeply committed to translating research into on-the-ground practice. To this end, she has done extensive speaking about care reform and improving public policy nationally and internationally.
Principles for Developing ResearchInformed, Homemade Solutions
There is often a gap between research and practice, and it can seem impossible to bridge these two fields. Practitioners can feel as though research-based interventions are unrealistic for the contexts in which they serve. Researchers can feel as though practitioners are resistant to implementing best practice. The truth is that researchers and practitioners need each other in order to craft the best solutions for children and families. The success of many research-practice partnerships shows that these relationships are possible, but they require intentionality. This talk will address key principles for connecting research and practice, and offer practical guidance for allowing research to inform our practice, and practice to inform our research.
https://cafo.org/resources/evaluations-of-promising-practices-of-child-welfare/
https://issuu.com/christianalliancefororphans/docs/2024_symposium_ innovate_local_one_pager?fr=sOWJlNjYyODI1NDE
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Learn more about the CAFO Research Center at cafo.org/research-center