Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W

LINDSAY HOMENICK, M.S.W. Policy/Research Associate

Lindsay Homenick’s area of expertise involves a wide range of services and skills. Since joining HZA in 2008, Ms. Homenick has been involved in the rewriting of child welfare policy, assessment of positive outcomes resulting from a Children’s Court Improvement Project, data gathering and training of local participants for workload studies and evaluation of statewide programs.

As part of HZA’s contract to assist Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families to create an online policy tool, Ms. Homenick was responsible for the rewrite of the state’s child welfare policy, taking it from a series of numbered memoranda to a standard format that is program and process oriented. Also for Wisconsin, she has led focus groups and analyzed county assessment and training of court-involved representative data in the evaluation of the court’s improvement initiatives involving children in the child welfare and foster care arenas.

Ms. Homenick actively participated in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Performance Audit, conducting interviews with key stakeholders and case record reviews to examine the organizational structure of the department in general and the implications of that structure for management and performance of the child welfare program in particular. More recently she was involved with three special studies conducted on behalf of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. The first encompassed case record reviews and interviews with workers to identify elements of the casework process which are most closely correlated to achieving successful outcomes for children and families and barriers to quality casework. The second was designed to review overdue investigations resulting in recommendations for casework actions and improved practices to assist with improving the timeliness of investigative decisions. The last, currently in progress, is designed to assess the effectiveness of contract providers in meeting the needs of children in foster care. Ms. Homenick designed the case record review tool and interview instruments for the review of children placed into therapeutic foster homes. She is also responsible for collecting the quantitative and qualitative data, as well as analyzing it to assess an individual program’s ability to meet compliance standards and achieve positive safety, permanency and well-being outcomes.

For two workload studies, Ms. Homenick has been an integral member of the teams used to conduct focus groups of program representatives to ensure case types and activities are clearly defined in the measurement of time staff have available for casework and time needed to handle cases in a quality manner. She also trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web-based data collection tools. Prior to join HZA, Ms. Homenick worked as a Match specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters where she assisted in match development and client satisfaction while insuring child safety and placement effectiveness. Ms Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany.

2 NEEDS ASSESSMENT/STRATEGIC PLANNING

From Colorado Child Welfare Abuse and Neglect Reporting Hotline Consulting Proposal – June 2013

Lindsay Homenick, Research Analyst and Single Point of Contact

Ms. Homenick is currently managing one project and co-managing another. The former is an evaluation of West Virginia’s Jacob’s Law, which is designed to determine the extent to which the establishment of enhanced specialized foster homes, along with other processes and supports, will lead to increased stability and well-being for children ages four to ten by minimizing the number of placement settings those children experience. Ms. Homenick is responsible for conducting interviews with program representatives, organizing both quantitative and qualitative data analysis, interpreting the results and writing the reports. These reports go to the advisory committee quarterly and to the State Legislature semi-annually.

Ms. Homenick is currently co-managing the evaluation of Arkansas’ IV-E Waiver. Because the State has chosen six separate initiatives, the evaluation plan she and her co-manager developed is extraordinarily complex, calling for multiple quasi- experimental studies. Over the course of the next six years, Ms. Homenick will be responsible for managing the data collection and analysis processes, including developing interim tools for caseworkers to use while the State’s SACWIS is being modified to support all of the waiver projects.

Ms. Homenick has worked on several other child welfare projects, including:

 the performance audit of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services discussed above;  the study the of privatization of child welfare services in Nebraska, also noted earlier;  an evaluation of Wisconsin’s Children’s Court Improvement Project and workload studies of child welfare workers in Minnesota, Alaska and Westchester County, New York.

From Ohio Children’s Trust Fund: Statewide Child Maltreatment Needs Assessment & Evaluation Services Proposal – July 2010

Data Collection Lead: Lindsay Homenick will serve as the data collection lead. She will work closely with Erin Arthur and Gabriela Vega in the design of data collection tools, identification of data sources and the various data collection efforts, including the training of program staff in administering the Protective Factors Survey. They will collect data through surveys and focus groups. GH Consulting, a minority business enterprise in Ohio, described below, with whom HZA has a long-standing business

3 relationship, will participate in conducting focus groups as well as the phone survey with counties.

4 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION/OUTCOME MEASUREMENT

From the Center for the Support of Families Nebraska Child Welfare Privatization Assessment Proposal – July 2012

Ms. Homenick is responsible for assessing program fidelity and analysis of outcome and performance measures; interviewing clients, private providers and public agency staff; and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. She has performed field data collection for projects in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alaska and Nebraska. These activities have included interviewing professional staff, judges, parents and community providers. She has authored reports for clients in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas and Nebraska using the resulting analyses of agency and program data extracts, case record reviews and interviews.

5 PROGRAM EVALUATION

From Colorado Prevention Evaluation Proposal – November 2013

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Co-Qualitative Lead, 32% Time Ms. Homenick is currently co-managing the evaluation of West Virginia’s Jacob’s Law initiative to reduce multiple placements of children in foster care. She develops the data collection instruments, conducts interviews with providers, interprets the data and writes the quarterly reports for the advisory committee and semi-annual reports for the State Legislature. Ms. Homenick also co-manages the evaluation of the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This multi-year project evaluates the Division’s implementation of six strategies designed to reduce the number of children entering foster care, increase placement stability for children in foster care and expedite permanency. Ms. Homenick developed the logic models for each strategy as well as the evaluation plan, which recently received federal approval. Ms. Homenick was the qualitative lead in two evaluations of social service providers in Nebraska, one focusing on the effectiveness of privatization and the other on Family Navigator Services. Most recently, Ms. Homenick is the firm’s point person for the project designing Colorado’s child maltreatment hotline. She participates in all Steering Committee meetings and has conducted onsite reviews of local hotline operations in counties across Colorado. She drafted the report laying out design options and will help to develop the Request for Proposal after the Steering Committee selects one. Ms. Homenick received a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the State University of New York, Albany.

From Washington State Competitive Federal MIECHV Program Evaluation Proposal – July 2013

Lindsay T. Homenick, M.S.W. will lead the development of the data collection instruments for both the process and outcome components of the evaluation. She will also participate in the collection of qualitative data for many of the identified groups. Since joining HZA five years ago, Ms. Homenick has been responsible for assessing program fidelity and analyzing outcome and performance measures for a variety of social services programs.

Ms. Homenick is currently co-managing the evaluation of West Virginia’s Jacob’s Law which is intended to increase stability and well-being for children age four to ten who are placed into foster care by minimizing the number of placement settings children experience. She is responsible for developing the data collection instruments, conducting interviews with local program representatives, interpreting the data collected quarterly from programs and writing the quarterly reports for the advisory committee and semi-annually for the State Legislature.

6 More recently, Ms. Homenick began co-managing the evaluation component of the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This multi-year project evaluates the Division’s implementation of six strategies which, combined, will serve to reduce the number of children entering foster care, increase placement stability for children in foster care and expedite their permanency. Ms. Homenick developed the logical models for each strategy, the evaluation plan, which recently received federal approval for several of the strategies, and is in the midst of creating data collection protocols which will be used to measure program fidelity, outcomes and cost neutrality. As co-manager, she will continue to participate in state and federal meetings, engage in portions of the data collection and assist with interpreting the results and writing reports.

Ms. Homenick has played an active role in two process evaluations of social service providers in Nebraska. For HZA’s study of the privatization of child welfare in Nebraska, Ms. Homenick developed interview protocols and conducted interviews with providers, administrators, caseworkers and judges and co-authored the final report. As part of a legislatively required evaluation of three programs designed to enhance the coordination of Nebraska children’s behavior health needs, Ms. Homenick interviewed program leads, service providers and families to determine if the programs were implemented as intended and were meeting the prevention needs of the families and their children. She was responsible for interpreting the results and writing the quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports.

Ms. Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Union College. She will devote approximately 28 percent of her time to the project.

From Wisconsin DMC Program Evaluation Services Proposal – March 2013

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W. Policy/Research Associate

Since joining HZA in 2008, Lindsay Homenick has been responsible for assessing program fidelity and analysis of outcome and performance measures; interviewing clients, private providers and public agency staff; and analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data. She has performed field data collection for projects in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alaska and Nebraska. These activities have included interviewing professional staff, judges, parents and community providers. She has authored reports for clients in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas and Nebraska using the resulting analyses of agency and program data extracts, case record reviews and interviews.

7 For Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, Ms. Homenick conducted an assessment of positive outcomes resulting from a Children’s Court Improvement Project. She led focus groups and analyzed county assessment and training of court-involved representative data in the evaluation of the court’s improvement initiatives involving children in the child welfare and foster care arenas. Ms. Homenick assisted in the development of baseline measures for ongoing monitoring of court outcomes related to the safety, permanency and well-being of children in the child welfare system. Using the results of outcome measures produced from the state’s child welfare case management system, Ms. Homenick drafted a series of annual reports in response to the State’s federal requirement to report progress.

For a recently awarded Title IV-E Waiver grant to Arkansas, Ms. Homenick has been working with the advisory committee charged with developing program strategies to reduce involvement in the child welfare system and strengthen permanency for those placed into foster care. She, along with Andrew Choens, another member of the project team for this effort, are developing an evaluation methodology which will assess fidelity of the program implementation, improved outcomes for children and families, and measure cost neutrality.

In addition, Ms. Homenick has assisted with evaluations of social service providers in Alaska and Nebraska. For the Mental Health Beneficiary Study in Alaska, she interviewed mental health providers to gauge the perceived service needs, barriers and concerns regarding the effectiveness of existing services for individuals that are incarcerated with mental illness. Ms. Homenick also conducted interviews with providers, administrators, caseworkers and judges in HZA’s study of privatization in Nebraska, and she wrote much of the final report.

Prior to join HZA, Ms. Homenick worked as a Match specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters where she assisted in match development and client satisfaction while insuring child safety and placement effectiveness. Ms Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany.

From Massachusetts Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Proposal – February 2013

Lindsay Homenick, MSW, Research Associate. Ms. Homenick serves as co- manager with Mr. Choens in the evaluation of Arkansas’ Title IV-E Demonstration Waiver and West Virginia’s implementation of Jacob’s Law, a child welfare reform initiative which employs CANS as a central component.

For Arkansas’ Title IV-E Demonstration Waiver Evaluation, Ms. Homenick is working with DCFS to finalize its formal logic model by facilitating meetings and engaging key stakeholders. She participates in meetings with ACF and will be attending annual meetings of demonstration states. The evaluation of Jacob’s Law is designed to assess fidelity, as well as the extent to which the processes lead to increased stability and well- being for children age four to ten, to minimize the number of placement settings children experience.

8 In addition, Ms. Homenick has assisted with evaluations of social service providers in Alaska and Nebraska. For the Mental Health Beneficiary Study in Alaska, she interviewed mental health providers to gauge the perceived service needs, barriers and concerns regarding the effectiveness of existing services for individuals that are incarcerated with mental illness. Ms. Homenick also conducted interviews with providers, administrators, caseworkers and judges in HZA’s study of privatization in Nebraska, and she wrote much of the final report.

From West Virginia Evaluation of Jacob’s Law Implementation Proposal – February 2011

Lindsay T. Homenick, M.S.W., Researcher Ms. Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany. Since joining HZA in 2008, Ms. Homenick has performed both qualitative and quantitative research for several of HZA’s engagements, including an assessment of Wisconsin’s Children’s Court Improvement Project, data gathering and training of local participants for workload studies and evaluations of statewide programs in Oklahoma and Nebraska.

As part of HZA’s contract with the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Ms. Homenick led focus groups and analyzed county assessment and training of court-involved representative data in the evaluation of the court’s improvement initiatives involving children in the child welfare and foster care arenas. Ms. Homenick assisted in the development of baseline measures for future monitoring of court outcomes related to the safety, permanency and well-being of children in the child welfare system.

Ms. Homenick actively participated in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Performance Audit. She conducted interviews with key stakeholders and case record reviews to examine the organizational structure of the department and the implications of that structure for management and performance of the child welfare program in particular. Ms. Homenick was instrumental in conducting and performing qualitative analysis portions of the engagement.

Between 2009 and 2010, she participated in three special studies conducted on behalf of the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. The first encompassed case record reviews and interviews with workers to identify elements of the casework process which are most closely correlated to achieving successful outcomes for children and families and barriers to achieving quality casework. The second was designed to review overdue investigations resulting in recommendations for casework actions and improved practices to assist with improving the timeliness of investigative decisions. The last was designed to assess the effectiveness of contract providers in meeting the needs of children in foster care. Ms. Homenick designed the case record review tool and interview instruments for the review of children placed into therapeutic foster homes. She was also responsible for collecting quantitative and qualitative data, as

9 well as analyzing it to assess an individual program’s ability to meet compliance standards and achieve positive safety, permanency and well-being outcomes.

Ms. Homenick is currently assisting with HZA’s evaluation of the Nebraska Family Help Line, Family Navigator and Right Turn Post Adoption/Post Guardianship Services. Ms. Homenick designed data collection instruments, conducted on-site case record reviews and interviewed families and provider staff. She has also conducted qualitative and quantitative data analyses and assisted in the writing of quarterly and semi-annual reports.

Prior to joining HZA, Ms. Homenick worked as a Match Specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters, where she assisted in match development and client satisfaction while ensuring child safety and placement effectiveness.

From Nebraska Behavioral Health Line Evaluation – 2009

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Research Team Member: As a member of the Research Team, Ms. Homenick will help to implement all data collection activities. Working with Ms. Goan, she will conduct focus groups, conduct site visits and review case records. She will be involved in analyzing and interpreting the data and writing reports.

10 RATE SETTING

From Illinois Time and Rate Study Proposal – December 2014

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Policy/Research Associate

Ms. Homenick is managing two projects for HZA, one in Nebraska and the other in Arkansas, both of which involve assessments of positive outcomes for clients served and evaluation of those programs’ costs. Ms. Homenick has also conducted data gathering and training of local participants for workload studies.

As a follow-up to an early study conducted by HZA of the privatization of child welfare in Nebraska, Ms. Homenick recently developed interview protocols and conducted interviews with providers, administrators, caseworkers and judges to gather their perceptions of the benefits and barriers to privatized case practice. She also developed the case record review tool which was used to assess adherence to policies and positive outcomes for children and families served, again enabling comparisons to be made across those served by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Children and Family Services and/or the Nebraska Families Collaborative (NFC). Using financial data collected from the Division and NFC, she has assisted with the cost analysis being done to compare differences across the public and private entities.

Ms. Homenick also manages the evaluation of the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This multi-year project evaluates the Division’s implementation of six strategies designed to reduce the number of children entering foster care, increase placement stability for children in foster care and expedite permanency. Ms. Homenick developed the logic models for each strategy as well as the evaluation plan, which recently received federal approval. The evaluation plan contains a process, outcome and cost-neutrality assessment of each initiative. She has developed many of the instruments being used for data collection, including key stakeholder interview protocols and case review instruments.

For the workload studies conducted for Minnesota and Westchester County, New York’s child welfare programs, Ms. Homenick conducted the focus groups used to define case types and casework activities. She trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of the web-based data collection tools and identified activities required in policy for the measurement of time needed to perform case work. For the workload study completed for the Alaska Office of Children’s Services in 2012, Ms. Homenick shadowed caseworkers from six offices across the state to assist in identifying tasks which could be transferred to support staff from case carrying workers.

From Nebraska Rate Setting for Providers of Habilitation Services Proposal – May 2010

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Research Team Leader: As the leader of the Data Collection Team, Ms. Homenick will be responsible for constructing survey and

11 interview tools. She will develop survey and interview instruments specific to each stakeholder. Ms. Homenick will assist with conducting focus groups and face-to-face interviews.

12 TIME STUDY

From Colorado Implementing a Time Study/RMS Methodology for Claiming Title IV-E Allowable Administrative Costs of Child Placement Agencies Proposal – February 2010

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Research Analyst Lindsay Homenick will assist the project leads in identifying and categorizing appropriate activities completed by staff at participating child placement agencies for the time study, as well as eligible staff and expenditures for inclusion in the process of measuring federal eligible administrative costs. She will play a pivotal role in both the curriculum development for training and data validation phases of this project.

Since joining the firm in 2008, Ms. Homenick has been involved in two large-scale workload studies, one for Minnesota and the other for Westchester County (New York). For each of these projects, Ms. Homenick conducted focus groups as part of the process of defining case types and tasks for the purposes of measuring the percentage of time staff were engaged in case work and the time it takes to handle specific types of cases. She trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web-based data collection tools.

13 WORKLOAD STUDY

From Oklahoma APS Workload Study Proposal – August 2014

Qualitative Lead, Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W.

Since joining HZA in 2008, Lindsay Homenick has been involved in qualitative components of evaluations such as the Title IVE Waiver in Arkansas and the Nebraska Family Helpline. She assessed data from the Court Improvement Project in Wisconsin and conducted interviews across the state. Ms. Homenick actively participated in the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Performance Audit, conducting interviews with key stakeholders throughout the state to examine the organizational structure of the department and case record reviews to determine the results achieved by the various programs. For two workload studies, Ms. Homenick has been an integral member of the teams used to conduct focus groups of program representatives to ensure case types and activities are clearly defined in the measurement of time staff have available for casework and time needed to handle cases in a quality manner. She also trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web- based data collection tools.

Prior to joining HZA, Ms. Homenick worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters. She received a Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany.

Ms. Homenick will research current policies and regulations as well as map the workflow of programs, services and activities.

From Colorado Child Welfare County Caseworker Workload Study Proposal – October 2013

LINDSAY HOMENICK, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Ms. Homenick has contributed both to HZA’s workload studies and to a number of evaluations for courts, corrections and child welfare programs. For the workload studies in Minnesota and Westchester County, New York’s child welfare program, Ms. Homenick conducted the focus groups used to define case types and casework activities. She trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web-based data collection tools and identified activities required in policy for the measurement of time needed to perform case work. For the workload study recently completed for the Alaska Office of Children’s Services, Ms. Homenick shadowed caseworkers from six offices across the state to assist in identifying tasks which could be transferred to support staff from case carrying workers.

Ms. Homenick is currently co-managing the evaluation of West Virginia’s Jacob’s Law, described above. She has been responsible for developing the data collection instruments, conducting interviews with local program representatives, interpreting the

14 data collected quarterly from programs and writing the quarterly reports for the advisory committee and semi-annually for the State Legislature.

Ms. Homenick co-manages the evaluation of the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This multi-year project evaluates the Division’s implementation of six strategies designed to reduce the number of children entering foster care, increase placement stability for children in foster care and expedite permanency. Ms. Homenick developed the logic models for each strategy, the evaluation plan, which recently received federal approval, and is in the midst of gaining federal approval for the data collection protocols to measure program fidelity, outcomes and cost neutrality.

Most recently, Ms. Homenick is serving as the firm’s point person for the project designing Colorado’s child maltreatment hotline. She participates in all Steering Committee meetings and has conducted onsite reviews of local hotline operations in counties across Colorado. She drafted the report outlining options for Colorado to consider and will help to develop the Request for Proposal after the Steering Committee selects one of the options.

From Colorado DOC Community Parole Officer’s Time and Workload Study Proposal – May 2013

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., Research Associate Ms. Homenick has played an active role in a variety of projects for HZA, ranging from participation in workload studies to evaluating court and correction programs. For the workload study conducted for Minnesota and a similar one conducted for Westchester County, New York’s child welfare program, Ms. Homenick conducted focus groups of program representatives to ensure case types and activities were clearly defined for the measurement of time staff have available for casework and time needed to handle cases in a quality manner. She has trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web-based data collection tools and identified activities required in policy for the measurement of time needed to do case work. For the workload study recently completed for the Alaska Office of Children’s Services, Ms. Homenick shadowed caseworkers from six different offices across the state to assist in identifying tasks which could be transferred to support staff to complete.

Ms. Homenick has conducted an assessment of outcomes resulting from Wisconsin’s Children’s Court Improvement Project. Data from trainings, stakeholder meeting minutes and federally prescribed child welfare outcome measures were used to determine the extent to which children were safe and achieved permanency. Recently, Ms. Homenick conducted case reviews and interviews with DOC representatives for the Alaska Trust beneficiary study.

From Alaska Office of Children Services Workload Proposal – January 2012

15 Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W. Lindsay Homenick’s area of expertise involves a wide range of services and skills. Since joining HZA in 2008, Ms. Homenick has been involved in the rewriting of child welfare policy, assessment of positive outcomes resulting from a Children’s Court Improvement Project, data gathering and training of local participants for workload studies and evaluation of statewide programs.

For at least two workload studies, Ms. Homenick has been an integral member of the teams used to conduct focus groups of program representatives to ensure case types and activities are clearly defined in the measurement of time staff have available for casework and time needed to handle cases in a quality manner. She has trained and provided technical assistance to local participants on the use of web-based data collection tools and identified activities required in policy for the measurement of time needed to do case work.

Prior to join HZA, Ms. Homenick worked as a Match specialist for Big Brothers Big Sisters where she assisted in match development and client satisfaction while insuring child safety and placement effectiveness. Ms Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany.

From Washington Workload CCD Proposal – 2009

Lindsay Homenick, MSW, 72 hours, will assist in the development of task codes and case types, and provide training to trainers in the workload study methodologies. She is presently assisting with similar activities on behalf of the workload studies taking place in Westchester County, NY and in the state of Minnesota. Since joining HZA in the summer of 2008, Ms Homenick led a series of focus groups at a statewide conference in Wisconsin where members of the state’s court and child welfare systems met to evaluate the court’s improvement initiatives.

From Child Welfare Workload and Analysis Study – Minnesota Proposal – Workload Study – 2008

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W. Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W., will work on the components of the study relating to workload efficiency and effectiveness as well as staff retention. She will also assist in the train-the-trainer portion of the project in preparation of the case time study and random moment survey components.

Ms. Homenick joined HZA in the summer of 2008 after completing her master’s in social work at the University of Albany. She has played a key role in several projects including the performance audit being conducted of Oklahoma’s Department of Human Services. Ms. Homenick has conducted extensive interviews with agency staff, its community

16 partners including court representatives and foster families, as well as with the clients being served at all stages of the case process.

Earlier this fall, Ms. Homenick led a series of focus groups at a statewide conference in Wisconsin where members of the state’s court and child welfare systems met to evaluate the court’s improvement initiatives involving children in the child welfare and foster care arenas. Ms. Homenick authored a report from the focus group responses as well as a survey administered to conference attendees, which will be used in Wisconsin’s Statewide Assessment.

Ms. Homenick is playing a key role in HZA’s project to rewrite Wisconsin’s child welfare policy manual from a series of numbered memoranda. She is developing the content outlines for various sections, redrafting the memoranda in the specified policy format, and developing the look-up glossary.

17 TRAINING/PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

From Florida Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse Curriculum Development Proposal – February 2013

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W.

Ms. Homenick will play a central role in conducting the literature review, assessing the evidence based practices and developing curriculum materials. Since joining HZA in 2008, Ms. Homenick has worked on quality reviews of child protective investigations in Arkansas, child welfare court improvement in Wisconsin, post-adoption support services in Nebraska and federal revenue maximization in Mississippi. Utilizing her experience with Arkansas’s SACWIS and familiarity with the state’s child welfare policy, Ms. Homenick developed a case record review instrument which is used on an ongoing basis to assess the effectiveness of child protective assessors. Ms. Homenick is the co- manager in the evaluation of Arkansas DCFS’ recent IV-Waiver award. Working as part of the state’s Waiver team, Ms. Homenick is developing an evaluation plan to satisfy the federal government’s requirements to measure fidelity of implementation, positive outcomes for children and families, and cost effectiveness.

Between 2008 and 2010, Ms. Homenick authored Wisconsin’s Annual Program Assessment Reports in response to federal funding received to support its Child Court Improvement Program (CCIP). She wrote an annual report to support the CCIP Basic Grant, Training Grant and Data Grant. Using quantitative and qualitative data which demonstrated the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s progress in improving outcomes for children and families involved with the courts and the child welfare program, Ms. Homenick generated logic models for each set of initiatives and updated the matrices based on those models and to track activities and measure progress. She used the matrices, in conjunction with data from the state’s SACWIS, training programs and other initiatives, to draft the annual reports for Wisconsin.

Ms. Homenick was a team leader in HZA’s assessment of child welfare privatization in Nebraska as well as in HZA’s study of children’s behavioral health and adoption support services in Nebraska. She has conducted interviews with an extensive array of stakeholders, conducted case record reviews using program case management systems, and assessed the ability of the state agency to meet its goals and objectives.

Ms. Homenick earned a master’s degree in social work from the State University of New York, Albany and is a licensed social worker.

18 GRANT WRITING

From Kanas Grant Writer, Reviewer, Evaluator Proposal – August 2013

Ms. Homenick is currently co-managing the evaluation of West Virginia’s Jacob’s Law which is intended, by minimizing the number of placement settings children experience, to increase well-being for children age four to ten who are placed into foster care. She is responsible for developing the data collection instruments, conducting interviews with local program representatives, interpreting the data collected quarterly from programs and writing the quarterly reports for the advisory committee and semi-annually for the State Legislature.

More recently, Ms. Homenick began co-managing the evaluation component of the Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Project for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. This multi-year project evaluates the Division’s implementation of six strategies which, combined, will serve to reduce the number of children entering foster care, increase placement stability for children in foster care and expedite their permanency. Ms. Homenick developed the logic models for each strategy, as well as the evaluation plan, which recently received federal approval. She is in the midst of creating data collection protocols which will be used to measure program fidelity, outcomes and cost neutrality. As co-manager, she will continue to participate in state and federal meetings, engage in portions of the data collection and assist with interpreting the results and writing reports.

She is currently participating in the design of a child abuse hotline for Colorado. Troubled by an increase in child deaths, the legislature mandated that the State’s Department of Human Services implement a statewide hotline system. Serving as the primary contact with the Department, Ms. Homenick is working closely with the Steering Committee chairs and members to identify the needs of the system, assess other states’ systems considering both potential replication and the challenges they have faced, and propose options for the Department to consider. The final product will be the development of a Request for Proposals which Colorado will use to solicit bids for a solution which will enable the state and counties to better accept and track calls of abuse and neglect.

Ms. Homenick played an integral role in the development of Arkansas’ recent proposal to secure federal funding for the State’s diligent recruitment of foster families for older youth. As part of the team assembled to help the Arkansas Department of Human Services request funding to support this initiative, she led the research of evidence- based practices being used in other states, authored the description of the evaluation component and assisted in verifying the completeness of the final proposal submission. Award of grant monies is currently pending.

19 Ms. Homenick received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the State University of New York at Albany and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Union College.

20 JUVENILE JUSTICE

From Virginia Cross Systems Assessment Proposal – May 2014

Ms. Homenick has been an integral leader and member of HZA teams evaluating child welfare and behavioral health assessments. For the assessment of dually-involved youth in Virginia, Ms. Homenick will meet with DCJS to review steps, milestones, deliverables, processes and timeline. She will develop and administer surveys to DJJ and DSS program staff to identify current policies and practices used by the Commonwealth’s agencies. She will conduct qualitative and quantitative data analysis detailing the survey results, characteristics of dually-involved youth and rates of recidivism. Ms. Homenick will work with Ms. Deame to draft and finalize the final report and present findings to the expanded team. (IV.B.2.b, third bullet)

Ms. Homenick serves on the data analysis team for the Alaska Behavioral Health Systems Assessment. HZA is responsible for data collection and analysis to determine the capacity and needs of the State’s behavioral health system. Ms. Homenick conducts on-site interviews with key stakeholders and evaluates policies, procedures, and services available in the State. She analyzes data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), Behavioral Risk Factory Surveillance System (BRFSS), and Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System (YRBSS), to estimate the need for behavioral health services across Alaska. (IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Homenick co-managed the recently completed Child Welfare Hotline Assessment for the Colorado Department of Human Services conducted to address the legislative mandate to implement a statewide hotline system. As part of the assessment she participated in steering committee meetings with state and county representatives to assess the needs of a routing system for calls of child abuse and neglect as well as to explore options for implementation. Ms. Homenick developed and administered a county survey to learn about call volume, technologies in place, training practices and staffing of local county-run hotlines. She also researched statewide hotlines in Ohio and New York to identify components for incorporation into Colorado’s hotlines. Ms. Homenick drafted a report detailing the State’s options, costs and advantages for the centralized abuse and neglect hotline. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

Ms. Homenick serves on the team to perform studies in Arkansas as part of the firm’s Quality Assurance role. She serves as Project Manager for the five year evaluation of the federal IV-E Waiver Demonstration Grant. She worked closely with DCFS to finalize its formal logic model and developed the evaluation plan, along with the data collection instruments for the six initiatives implemented in Arkansas as part of the waiver. Ms. Homenick has developed interview and case record review protocols for each of the initiatives, conducted on-site interviews and performed case record reviews. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet, IV.B.2.b, fourth bullet, IV.B.2.b, fifth bullet)

21 Ms. Homenick holds a Master’s in Social Work from the State University of New York and a B.S. in Psychology from Union College. (IV.B.2.b, first bullet)

22 CFSR/PIP/QSR SUPPORT

From Alaska Title IV-E Consultant Proposal – November 2014

Lindsay Homenick, M.S.W. Policy/Research Associate Estimated Hours: 796 Work Location: Troy, New York and Juneau, Alaska

Since joining HZA in 2008, Ms. Homenick has been involved in the rewriting of child welfare policy, assessment of outcomes, data gathering and training of local participants for workload studies and evaluation of statewide programs. She is currently managing HZA’s evaluation of Arkansas’ Title IV-E waiver project and is the lead staff for the firm’s assessment of Nebraska’s privatization of child welfare services.

Ms. Homenick has participated in workload studies in Minnesota, New York and Virginia, in a performance audit of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, in an evaluation of behavioral health projects in Nebraska and in a variety of projects for the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services. For the Title IV-E waiver project in Arkansas she is responsible for leading the evaluation of all six initiatives, including designing the case record review tools and interview instruments and directing the data analysis.

For HZA’s assessment of privatization of child welfare services in Nebraska, Ms. Homenick has organized the data collection activities and is currently working with the firm’s principals on writing the final report. Part of her work there has also involved examining the challenges privatization presents to obtaining reimbursement for Title IV- E and identifying the opportunities the State has to increase that reimbursement.

23 REFERENCES

Reference Utilized Philip Goldstein 1. CFS NE CW Privatization Westchester County Department of Social Services Child Welfare Division 110 County Center Road, 2nd Floor White Plains, NY 10607 (914) 419-4030 [email protected] Jessyca Vandercoy, Program Director 1. CFS NE CW Privatization Right Turn 124 South 24th Street, Suite 200 Omaha, NE 68102 (402) 889-8365 [email protected] Sue Hage, Deputy Commissioner 1. CFS NE CW Privatization West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources One Davis Square, Suite 100 East Charleston, WV 25301 [email protected]