UPCOMING RESEARCH

The Institute is preparing for another robust year of research and evaluation activities in addition to the ongoing evaluations of SB 1326 initiatives, and the completion of the mandated independent life skills evaluation. We will grant two Priority Research Awards on the topic of Transformational Leadership, as well as two Affiliate Awards for Translational Research, to inform our future GROW Center and research and evaluation activities.

There are a number of projects planned to begin this year, which are briefly summarized below and more fully described later in this report:

❖ Exploration and evaluation of innovative training strategies under consideration for multiple GROW Center initiatives, including virtual reality and simulation labs. ❖ Research that prioritizes the voices of those involved in the child welfare system, including studies involving 1) parents, to inform strategies to provide effective services and interventions that are responsive to the context of their lives; 2) foster parents, to improve retention toward creating a more stable system of care; and 3) photovoice methodology, to promote community participatory action methodologies that can authentically promote voices of those with lived expertise (e.g., workers, youth, families). ❖ Intervention research to address trauma among foster youth. ❖ Evaluations of novel interventions delivered at Heartland for Children, including the Permanency Primer program and sexual safety interventions.

In addition, we have several projects that are newly underway or launching shortly. These projects are described in this section.