The Administration for Children and Families is seeking public input on its plan to begin collecting new data as part of a study to understand the effectiveness and value of ongoing efforts to centralize services for low-income families and individuals.
An arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ACF aims to come away from the study with fresh insight into the models that have been used to centralize safety net services. ACF’s research staff will look into organizations’ history of centralization and what prompted them to adopt that approach, as well as the associated benefits, challenges and costs.
To do so, they will seek the input of both staff and clients as they examine how organizations have coordinated their centralized services virtually. The research team will visit three centralized community resource centers (CCRCs), where they’ll interview administrative staff, frontline and other staff, run focus groups with clients and directly observe program activities.
“Respondents will include leadership and administrative staff at the CCRC, staff who manage finances at the CCRC, staff who manage data and/or technology at the CCRC, staff who provide services directly to clients at the CCRC, and clients who have accessed services at the CCRC,” according to a post in the Nov. 29 Federal Register.
Public comments on the plan will be most helpful if they are submitted before the end of December because the agency has only 60 days to decide whether to collect the data, ACF said. Go to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain and find the relevant information collection by selecting “Currently under Review—Open for Public Comments’’ or by using the search function.