MISSION
The mission of Welfare Research, Inc. is to provide technical assistance to enhance organizational and staff capacity in the human services, health, and education sectors. WRI offers creative, effective, and prompt assistance to public and private organizations with needs for publication and production support; program research and evaluation; financial management; conference coordination; and grant writing.
HISTORYSince its founding in 1967, WRI has worked with numerous public and private agencies in New York State and other locations.
1970’s & 1980’s
In its early years, WRI concentrated its activities on research and demonstration, evaluation, training and technical assistance, and conference coordination. Representative programs and projects involved social policy analysis, administrative and financial management, and systems design and evaluation.
WRI’s work in the 1970’s and 1980’s comprised four major corporate research areas: Family and Children’s Services; Health and Special Populations; Community Services; and Income Maintenance and Support.
A key example of WRI’s research focus was its Evaluation of the Child Welfare Reform Act. New York State’s Child Welfare Reform Act (CWRA) of 1979 mandated the provision of preventive services to enable children at risk of foster care to remain with their families and for children already in foster care to return home or to be placed in adoptive homes. The State Division of the Budget (DOB) contracted with WRI to evaluate the act’s implementation and effectiveness. WRI’s interim report was submitted by DOB to the Governor and the Legislature in 1982. A final evaluation report on the programmatic and fiscal impacts and effectiveness of the child welfare reforms was submitted in late 1985.
Another significant study was WRI’s Evaluation of the Child Abuse Prevention Act. In 1985, New York State passed the Child Abuse Prevention Act (CAPA) to protect children from abuse and maltreatment when they are in care away from their homes. The NYS Council on Children and Families contracted with WRI to conduct a 30-month study of the implementation and effectiveness of the act. The evaluation was completed in 1989.
For the Child and Adolescent Health Profile, WRI worked with the NYS Department of Health and the Council on Children and Families in a three-year project to identify and integrate existing health data on children and adolescents to monitor their health status, learn about their preventive and primary care needs, and examine the impact of current programs. Publications included a profile report, resource manual, replication manual, and annotated bibliography. Conducted during the 1980’s, the project was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In response to the concern that adolescents in low-income, high-risk, and medically underserved communities in New York City lack adequate access to appropriate preventive and primary health care, the NYS Department of Health expanded its School Health Demonstration Program (SHDP) to nine high schools in 1985. To conduct an Evaluation of School-Based Health Clinics, WRI evaluated this demonstration in two phases, both in cooperation with the New York City Board of Education’s Office of Educational Assessment, one in 1987 and the other in 1992.
WRI also established several institutes related to employment and employee relations. Through its Public Employment Research Institute in the early 1980’s, WRI conducted research and provided support services in a number of areas related to public employment, such as occupational safety, job sharing, performance evaluation, and factors in worker satisfaction. This work was conducted on behalf of New York State’s Joint Labor- Management Committee on the Work Environment and Productivity (CWEP).
Another was the Labor-Management Relations Training Institute. To address the need in the 1980’s for ongoing training in labor-management relations, WRI provided a flexible resource in labor-management relations training to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations (GOER) and the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). WRI provided a broad range of training to staff, officials, and members of local labor-management committees in topics such as arbitration procedures, handling employee grievances, and organizational skills.
A major effort for six years in the 1980’s was the Nutrition Education Multimedia Campaign. As the statewide contractor for the New York State Nutrition Education Campaign, WRI coordinated a multimedia effort (radio, television, newspapers, transit posters, and educational materials) to promote sound nutrition among low-income households and to increase awareness of federally funded nutrition programs.
With its Minority Community-Based Organization (MCBO) Development project in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s,WRI provided training and technical assistance over a six-year period to MCBO staff in the skills needed to obtain public funds and meet the complex reporting, fiscal, and recordkeeping requirements of government agencies. The training also covered general organizational skills such as personnel recruitment and development, financial management, board development, planning, and public relations. This project was supported by the NYS Department of Social Services.
1990’s
An example of WRI’s program evaluation work was its Evaluation of the School Construction Authority’s (SCA) Summer Internship Program in 1992, 1993, and 1994. In this program, New York City high school students work in construction industry jobs over a six-week period and also attend summer school. WRI’s evaluation was based on data from questionnaires and interviews with students, counselors, supervisors, and employers.
In 1992, WRI completed a three-year Assessment of the Gannett Foundation’s Literacy Challenge Grants, an adult literacy initiative in 20 states and Puerto Rico. The emphasis was on identifying and documenting best practices among grantees. Based on file reviews and site visits, WRI produced three documents: a comprehensive description of programs and activities; a catalog of all products; and an analysis of the states’ efforts. Continuing its work in literacy, WRI researched and compiled two reports on Workplace Literacy Programs for the NYS Governor’s Office of Employee Relations and the Civil Service Employees Association in the 1990’s. One was a review of assessment instruments used in workplace literacy programs, and the other was a directory of potential funding sources for workplace literacy initiatives.
In another program analysis, in 1998 WRI examined the Satellite Day Care Program, an innovative child care program specifically designed to support New York City’s welfare reform initiatives. The Consortium for Worker Education (CWE) implemented the program, which was designed to expand employment opportunities for low-income people, and provide and increase high quality child care through the use of “satellite” homes linked to an existing center-based child care agency.
Throughout the 1990’s, WRI reached out to the AIDS community by developing Finding Funds for AIDS Projects in New York City, a comprehensive directory of funding sources for AIDS-related initiatives by foundations, corporations, community grantmakers, and government. When the first edition was published in 1990, WRI conducted technical assistance workshops to help community-based agencies access funding. Funds from the New York State AIDS Institute, New York Community Trust, United Way of New York City, National AIDS Memorial, Michael Palm Foundation, and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS supported this project. The third edition was printed in 1998.
An example of WRI’s administrative support projects was conducted from 1994 to 1996 for the Coordinated Children’s Services Initiative (CCSI). Through a contract with the NYC Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism Services, WRI administered the project grant, which funded interagency coordination and collaboration of services to children who were severely emotionally disturbed and their families in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx.
During the nineties, WRI began writing, editing, and designing manuals for child welfare caseworkers. WRI staff worked with staff of public and private agencies to help develop content for the manuals such as the Child Protective Services Field Operations Manual and the Foster Care/Adoption Services Manual for the NYC child welfare agency. Other examples were foster care manuals for St. Christopher-Ottilie Services for Children and Families and for the Niagara County Department of Social Services. The Institutional Abuse Manual was developed in a similar process for the NYS Department of Social Services.
To assist staff, WRI also helped develop, write, and design a number of laminated desk aids and edited statewide newsletters such as Preventive Trends and Special Delivery intended for staff and families.
2000’s
From 2000 to the present, WRI has deepened its focus on developing materials such as manuals, handbooks, guides, and tools for families and human services staff. Examples of guides for families and youth include the New York State Foster Parent’s Guide to Adoption, New York State Foster Parent Manual, Handbook for Youth in Foster Care, and Having a Voice & a Choice: New York State Handbook for Relatives Raising Children.
Comprehensive manuals for staff include the Eligibility Manual for Child Welfare Programs, Working Together: Health Services for Children in Foster Care, and the B2H Manual for the Bridges to Health program for the NYS Office of Children and Family Services and Department of Health.
In 2007-08, WRI edited and designed five manuals and other materials on the HIV Options Intervention for the Center for Health, Intervention, and Prevention (CHIP) of the University of Connecticut. In this project, healthcare providers are trained in the Options intervention, an HIV risk reduction intervention for patients living with HIV who are in primary care.
Other materials developed by WRI since 2000 include desk aids and pocket guides as well as the Challenges & Solutions electronic newsletter for stakeholders in child welfare. WRI also wrote white papers on topics such as residential foster care, immigration, and health care coordination.