A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

National Evaluation of The Even Start Family Literacy Program, 1998

Chapter 5

How Do Projects Accommodate Participants' Needs?

Two of the key elements required in the Even Start program are serving families most in need and providing support services to assist families to participate in educational components. In addition, given the tremendous diversity among families enrolled in Even Start, flexibility in service delivery and negotiating the many constraints that families experience also are critical elements of the program.

Families' Needs for Support Services

Child care is the most common support service needed by Even Start families; 89 percent of project sites reported that "many" or "all" of their families needed this service (Exhibit 5.15). Additional areas where "many" or "all" families needed support were family support⁷⁰ (79 percent), transportation (78 percent), and nutrition assistance (75 percent). These percentages have remained largely the same since 1994-95.

Support Services Parents and Children Received

As a comprehensive educational program oriented to the improvement of the overall functioning of the entire family, Even Start stipulates the provision of support services designed to allow parents and children to maximize the educational opportunities available through the program.

Projects reported that support services most commonly received by parents included: child care (54 percent); transportation (46 percent); meals (43 percent); and family support (e.g., support groups, 39 percent) (Exhibit 5.16). The services that children most commonly received were meals (51 percent); child care (50 percent); and transportation (45 percent).⁷¹ Fewer families received the types of services that are less directly related to families' access to Even Start educational services compared to child care and transportation. Health care screening and referrals were received by 28 percent of parents and 28 percent of children; employment assistance was provided to 21 percent of parents. Finally, 15 percent of parents and 21 percent of children received no support services through Even Start, although they may have received services from social service agencies not associated with Even Start.

Families receiving employment assistance increased slightly from 18 percent in 1994-95 to 19 percent in 1995-96 and 21 percent in 1996-97. The percentages of families receiving several other types of support services also increased by 2 to 3 percentage points. Otherwise, results were fairly consistent across the last three years. When we examined the relationships of various family and project characteristics to families' participation rates (presented in Chapter 6), the number of support services received by families was consistently related to the extent of participation.

In general, projects' assessment of their participants' need for support services was higher than the extent to which the needs were met. Thus, we focused on projects in which all or many of their families needed specific types of services (e.g., child care and transportation) and examined the percentage of families in those projects that received those services during the 1996-97 program year. In the project sites where all or many families needed child care, 56 percent of parents received child care. In project sites where most families needed transportation, 50 percent received transportation assistance. The "gap" in services may suggest that as projects succeed in recruiting more needy families, they may experience greater challenges in meeting all the support service needs of all families.

Flexibility of Services

The schedules and needs of Even Start parents differ, and projects strive to accommodate these differences in their service delivery. Ninety-two percent of project sites in 1996-97 provided child care; 71 percent provided both home- and center-based instruction; and more than half provided day and evening or weekend classes (Exhibit 5.17). These results have remained consistent throughout the second evaluation.

Some projects implement several approaches to accommodate family schedules. Twenty-one percent of project sites report implementing one of the three approaches listed above, while 41 percent reported using all three approaches. The flexibility of service schedules was related to the number of home visits families received as discussed in Chapter 6.

Footnotes:

⁷⁰ The term family support refers to such services as counseling, support groups, and advocacy with other agencies.

⁷¹ Child care is included among the types of support services parents receive, meaning that child care services for their children allow parents to attend educational services. The apparent difference between the percentages of parents and children receiving this service may be due to different levels of missing data for parents and children. Another possible reason is that many families have multiple children in Even Start. Thus, a parent with one 3-year-old and one 7-year-old may receive child care for the younger child but not necessarily for the older child.

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[ What Transitional Services Are Provided to Children Moving to Kindergarten and Primary School? ]

[ Chapter 6: To What Extent Did Even Start Families Participate in the Service Offered? ]