Building a New Model for Child Well-Being in South Carolina: OPT-In Initiative

Project Context: 

• Leaders in the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) want to reduce maltreatment among children, improve wellbeing among families, and reduce crises for families that often lead to child welfare involvement through a hotline call. 
• The GPL is working with the Doris Duke Foundation on their Opportunities for Prevention & Transformation Initiative (OPT-In for Families), which focuses on identifying families that may be at higher risk of child protection interactions and then connecting them to voluntary, community-based supports. South Carolina is one of the demonstration sites.

How the GPL is Supporting: 

• Helping South Carolina DSS deepen their understanding of current supports by: 
• Identifying gaps and barriers to accessing current services. 
• Reviewing data from existing pilot programs to assess effectiveness at reaching and supporting families.  
• Aiding DSS leaders as they identify an OPT-In target population by: 
  • Analyzing agency administrative data to assess which subsets of the population are most likely to experience child welfare involvement. 
  • Conducting a case review to better understand current volume of referrals and client service needs. 
• Supporting DSS in the design and implementation of programs that effectively engage families and meet their needs by: 
  • Testing new family outreach strategies, designed using feedback from people with lived experience with child protection. Strategies include alternative modes of contact, such as texting, and new language that navigators use when speaking directly with families. 
  • Setting up tools to collect new data on family engagement and review it on a regular basis to assess how well new approaches are working and make changes as needed.  
  • Building capacity at community-based organizations by holding monthly meetings with multiple providers so they can hear from their peers and incorporate family engagement strategies working in South Carolina.