Evaluation Report Brief

The Guidance Center: Families and 

Schools Together

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service May 2017

nationalservice.gov/research 1

What is the community challenge? 

River Rouge is a community of 7,903 in Wayne County, 

Michigan where about a quarter of families live below the 

poverty line. Many parents and caregivers do not have the 

skills needed to provide the early learning foundations for the 

young children in their care.

Program At-a-Glance

CNCS Program: Social Innovation Fund (SIF)

Intervention: Families and Schools Together 

(FAST)

Subgrantee: The Guidance Center

Intermediary: United Way of Southeastern 

Michigan

Focus Area(s): Education

Focus Population(s): Children ages 0-8 and their 

caregivers

Community Served: River Rouge, Michigan

What is the promising solution?

The River Rouge community, led by The Guidance Center and 

its Walter White Community Resource Center, designed and 

implemented a comprehensive community-driven, sociallyinnovative approach to kindergarten readiness. One of these 

interventions, Families and Schools Together (FAST), is a 

multi-family learning and support group that focuses on the 

developmental and behaviorally based needs of preschool-age children as well as the needs of their parents. 

FAST programs last for 10 weeks of 2 1⁄2 hour meetings each week.

What was the purpose of evaluation?

The impact evaluation of The Guidance Center’s FAST intervention by Innovatus Consulting, LLC, began in 

2013 and finished reporting in 2015. The study investigated whether parents whose family participated in 

FAST report significantly better family functioning and less parenting stress than the national average for 

parents who did not participate in FAST, and also looked into whether children whose parents participated in 

FAST showed gains in Kindergarten readiness areas compared to children whose parents did not participate.

What did the evaluation find?

As a subgrantee of United Way of Southeastern Michigan, The Guidance Center engaged an independent 

evaluator to evaluate FAST. The evaluation utilized a quasi-experimental design with a pre/post test and a 

non-random pseudo-control group comprised of the national FAST evaluation sample. The Guidance Center 

reported that three cohorts of FAST were implemented. Over 100 families were recruited for FAST; 50% of 

those agreed to attend; 46% attended at least one session; and 46% graduated (21 families in total graduated).

Parents (N=17) completed pre/post survey assessments that showed statistically significant improvement in:

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Parent’s relationship with the FAST child;

Reduction in conduct problems for the FAST child as reported by parents;

Improved community-social relationships for parents;

Improved total social relationships for parents;

Tangible support for parents (help with cooking, chores, child time)

Emotional support (listening, getting together, getting advice); and

Total support for parents. 
Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service May 2017

nationalservice.gov/research 2

Notes on the evaluation

The evaluation showed promising findings on FAST’s ability to support families raising small children, 

including preparing children for Kindergarten. However, the study’s small sample size and lack of a matched 

comparison group limited evidence of impact.

The evaluators had originally proposed using a propensity score matched design to compare non-FAST 

families. However, due to limited ability to recruit control families and the shortened time-frame of the project,

this aspect of the design was not implemented. This limitation is a function of the early exit of the program 

from the SIF portfolio rather than factors directly related to the design of the evaluation or the 

sampling/recruiting procedures.

How is The Guidance Center using the evaluation findings to 

improve? 

The evaluators conducted focus groups with participants at the 

conclusion of each FAST cycle to obtain feedback on aspects of 

the program that they believe need improvement. 

The evaluation concluded that one of the lessons learned related

to designing and implementing a locally-driven initiative within 

the context of sometimes rigid federal guidelines. Two 

guidelines influenced the design of the River Rouge project in a 

less than desired way: 

(1) The requirement that families be River Rouge residents and reside in a specific zip code; and 

(2) The moderate level of evidence needed to be achieved through the evaluation of each SIF program.

The requirement that participants live within a certain zip code 

significantly reduced the number of potential participants given 

the fluid boundaries that exist across River Rouge and its 

neighboring communities. The Guidance Center’s original 

design was modified during Year Two to meet SIF evidence 

requirements; this caused a shift in the theory of change as well 

as shift in staffing and approach to the work.

Evaluation At-a-Glance

Evaluation Design(s): Quasi-experimental

Study Population: Caregivers of children ages 0-8

(Independent) Evaluator: Innovatus Consulting, 

LLC

This Evaluation’s Level of Evidence*: Preliminary

*SIF and AmeriCorps currently use different definitions of levels of evidence.

The content of this brief was drawn from the full evaluation report submitted to CNCS by the grantee/subgrantee. The section of the brief that 

discusses evaluation use includes contribution of the grantee/subgrantee. All original content from the report is attributable to its authors.

To access the full evaluation report and learn more about CNCS, please visit nationalservice.gov/research.

Wayne County, Michigan 

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), combines public and private resources to grow the impact of 

innovative, community-based solutions that have compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the U.S. The SIF invests in three 

priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development.