Performer: Family Service, Inc.., Madison, Wisconsin
Project Period:
Principal Investigator: Dr. Lynn McDonald, Ph.D.
Phone Number:
Federal Project Officer: James V. Dolson
Internet:jdolson@acf.dhhs.gov
Policy Implications Analysis: In 1989-1992, the Office of Human Development awarded a three-year grant totalling $150,000 to Dr. Lynn McDonald of Family Service in Madison, Wisconsin to adapt and further develop a prevention/early intervention program for at-risk youth. The program, called Families and Schools Together (FAST), is a collaborative, whole family approach. This executive summary reviews the outcomes of the project and proposes: 1) funding a national dissemination and replication of FAST for three years; and 2) considering FAST as a program using youth service volunteers for prevention service to the American children.
Grant Application Summary: FAST will prevent pre-teen problems within educational systems through a family-based, collaborative project. Schools and families are in crisis. The risk of failure among students at-risk, many of whom have alcohol, drug, mental health, abuse/neglect, and other family problems, is high and increasing. The project will:
In order to accomplish these objectives, the project will draw from the most successful motivational and educational efforts in the entire human service field. The project will develop, evaluate, and disseminate in written, audio/visual, and oral form a model which, if successful, will intervene in families where the risks of failure are very high and the ability to access help is now very low.
FAST Program Goals: FAST uses a collaborative team to run multi-family groups of elementary school aged children at-risk for school failure, delinquency, and substance abuse. The goal of FAST is to empower parents to be their own child's primary prevention agent. The program supports the whole family in order to increase the at-risk child's chances of success. Rather than an educational program, FAST builds positive bonds and strengthens relationships among whole family units - between a mother and her child, between mothers who are in similar circumstances, and between parents and professionals in the community.
FAST Evaluation: The evaluation outcomes showed:
Statistically significant improvements in the mental health of the at-risk children have been documented by teachers and parents of over 400 children/families at thirty sites using standardized quantitative instruments, comparing scores pre- and post-FAST. The children's scores jumped an average of 20 to 25 percent over the eight-week period. In a small experimental study, the results were similarly positive when comparing FAST to a randomly assigned control group. Longitudinal, quantitative data on the children are being collected now with an Office of Substance Abuse Prevention (OSAP) grant. FASTWORKS three-year follow-up showed
FAST Funding: Since 1988, the local FAST program has been funded by United Way of Dane County, the Madison Community Foundation, the City of Madison, Madison Metropolitan School District and Chapter I funds, the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Drug Free Schools monies, the Department of Health and Human Services, Alcohol and Drug Prevention Unit, and the three year (1989-1992) Office of Human Development Services/Administration for Children and Families funding for program development. In 1990, Wisconsin Assembly Bill 122 was passed to allocate $1,000,000 per year for replicating FAST across the state. This happened with support both from a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature. With three successive years of state funding, there are certified FAST programs in over forty school districts in Wisconsin. In 1991, the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention awarded FAST a five-year $1,300,000 high- risk youth grant to evaluate FAST longitudinally, to adapt FAST to preschool, Head Start, and middle school, and to develop the follow-up program.
FAST National Dissemination: In 1992, FAST grew to be in seventy schools/communities in six states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, and Delaware. In the last eighteen months, there have been over 800 requests for information about FAST from outside the state of Wisconsin. These requests have come from across the United States.
FAST has been featured in several nationally distributed professional newsletters: National Association of Family-Based Services; Family Resource Coalition; American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists; Brown University Family Therapy Newsletter; National Association of Social Work; Social Work in Education; and National Organization of School Student Assistance Programs. FAST has also been presented at several national conferences: National Organization of School Student Assistance Programs, National Association of School Administrators, National Association of School Board Members, Family Service Bi- Annual National meetings, and Family Resource Coalition. The chapters in the project's final report were prepared in the form of articles to be submitted to appropriate journals for further dissemination.
Awards for FAST: FAST has been honored by several national competitive processes as an effective prevention/early intervention program:
National Dissemination of FAST: Although Family Service of Madison, Wisconsin has provided a home for this rapidly expanding FAST program, the Family Service Board has decided that the national dissemination of FAST is not encompassed by the mission of the agency. The local, not-for-profit mental health agency has a mission to serve people under stress in Dane County, Wisconsin.
Beginning February 1, 1993, the DeWitt-Wallace Foundation has awarded a three-year, $625,000 grant for national replication and evaluation of FAST in six new states. The Mott Foundation also awarded a one-year $75,000 grant for training six additional cities. These grants were to Dr. Lynn McDonald at Family Service America, a not-for-profit unbrella organization for almost 300 private sector family service agencies across the United States.
Each of these agencies are committed to supporting families under stress with professional expertise. Family Service America publishes a journal entitled Families in Society; the organization has a presence at national professional meetings; and it has a mission to advocate nationally for exemplary service to families under stress. Family Service America also has professional regional consultants who travel regularly across the U.S. to provide membership support services. Family Service America is pleased to be the home to the FAST National Dissemination project.
Recommendations: 1. ACF match foundation dollars to replicate FAST nationally, $700,000 over three years. This would disseminate nationally an innovative, exemplary prevention program underwritten by ACF for children, families, schools and communities. 2. FAST be considered by the Clinton administration for a national model which could incorporate youth service into its dissemination. Youth could be trained to help run this program and help staff it as a volunteer service to their country to help at-risk youth succeed in schools while empowering parents into being the primary prevention agent for their own child. This could be funded in part through Department of Education Chapter I funds as a parent involvement program for disadvantaged youth (annual allocation nationally is $6.9 billion).
Report availability: Contact the federal project officer to request a copy of the final report.