Over the course of the next two years, our team will partner with Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance to evaluate the implementation of Families in Recovery. The purpose of this study is to understand how the program is being implemented at each site and assess whether the program is being delivered as intended. Through this evaluation, we hope to identify best practices in implementation and describe facilitator, administrator and family perspectives on key components of the program. 

We will use mixed methods to evaluate Families in Recovery, including engaging key stakeholders such as program facilitators, administrators, and participants through in-depth qualitative interviews, longitudinal surveys, a focus group and site observations. We’ll then combine information learned from these stakeholder engagement efforts with process metrics collected throughout the evaluation and descriptive statistics about each implementing site. These metrics will cover program enrollment and participation, staffing and turnover, and site-level implementation characteristics. This will help us assess local and contextual factors that may impact fidelity to the program model. 

To facilitate effective, respectful, and responsive research, we will include a community advisory board of four community experts to consult on evaluation materials (e.g., interview guides, survey instruments) and support interpretation and external validation of findings. 

Findings and recommendations from this implementation evaluation will inform quality improvement efforts and future outcome evaluation efforts for Families in Recovery. 

To view the Families in Recovery Implementation Evaluation Final Report, click here.