Impact on Child Welfare Professionals

Using research to inform HRMET curriculum design and to document training impact.

Initial Needs Assessment

In the early development of the curriculum, a statewide survey was conducted in Missouri and North Carolina to understand the attitudes of child welfare professionals towards the role of relationship and marriage education in their work with vulnerable children and families. Learn more:

• Futris, T. G., Dick, V., Barton, A., Mennanga, K., & Leland, N. (2011). Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training: Survey of North Carolina Child Welfare Professionals. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.
• Dick, V., Futris, T. G., & Barton, A. (2010). Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training: Survey of Missouri Child Welfare Professionals. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

One-day Pilot Training Evaluation

From May 2011 through August 2013, 52 trainings were conducted with 1375 professionals across the five project states. Participants were surveyed prior to and following each training in order to document immediate (and sustained) changes in participants knowledge of the training content and confidence in utililizing the tools with clients. As well, follow-up surveys documented how participants applied the training tools in their work. Learn more:

• Futris, T. G., Thurston, D., Lee, T. K, & Head, L. (2014). The Healthy Relationship and Marriage Education Training (HRMET): One-day Training Evaluation Report (2011-2013). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Graduate Course Evaluation

A 14-week graduate course was developed based on the HRMET curriculum and offered at the University of Missouri by Dr. Dave Schramm. The course, "Couple and Marital Relationships in Child Welfare," was cross listed through the Department of Human Development and Family Studies and the Department of Social Work and taught Fall 2010, 2011, and 2012. Learn more:

• Futris, T. G., Barton, A. W., Duncan, J., & Thurston, D. (2013). Evaluation of the University of Missouri Graduate Course: Couple and Marital Relationships in Child Welfare (Fall 2010, 2011, and 2012). Athens, GA: University of Georgia Cooperative Extension. (Click here for a brief summary report)

Publications

• Scarrow, A., Fuhrman, N., & Futris. T.G. (2015) Engaging and training professionals to implement family strengthening programs: Lessons learned. Journal of Extension [On-line], 53 (5). Available at http://www.joe.org/joe/2015october/a3.php

• Futris, T. G., & Schramm, D. G. (2015) The healthy relationship and marriage education training project: Lessons learned in program development. Journal of Extension [On-line], 53 (3). Available at http://www.joe.org/joe/2015june/a4.php

• Futris, T. G., Schramm, D. G., Richardson, E. W., & Lee, T., K. (2015). Integrating relationship education into child welfare services: The Impact of Organizational Support on the Transfer of Learning to Practice. Children and Youth Services Review, 51, 36-43. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.01.019

• Scarrow, A., Futris, T. G., Fuhrman, N. E. (2014). The factors associated with child welfare professionals’ application of relationship education. Children and Youth Services Review,46, 265-275. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.08.023

• Futris, T. G., Schramm, D., Lee, T. K., Thurston, W. D., and Barton, A. W. (2014). Training child welfare professionals to support healthy couple relationships: Examining the link to training transfer. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 8 (5), 560-583. doi: 10.1080/15548732.2014.953719

• Schramm, D., Futris, T. G., Galovan, A. M., & Allen, K. (2013). Is relationship and marriage education relevant and appropriate to child welfare? Children and Youth Services Review, 35 (3), 429-438. doi:  10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.12.013