Evaluation of the Arizona Families in Recovery Succeeding Together (F.I.R.S.T.) Program
The Arizona Community Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program was established by ARS 8-881 (Senate Bill 1280 passed in the 2000 legislative session) and made available $10 million in appropriations to provide a statewide program for substance abusing families entering the child welfare system as well as families receiving cash assistance through TANF. The purpose of the program, known as Arizona Families F.I.R.S.T. (Families in Recovery Succeeding Together), was to develop community partnerships and programs for families for which substance abuse is a barrier to maintaining, preserving, or reunifying the family, or maintaining self-sufficiency in the workplace. The Joint Substance Abuse Treatment Fund was established to coordinate efforts in providing necessary services under the program. In 2001, the Arizona Department of Economic Security's Division for Children, Youth and Families awarded a five-year contract to JBA, in collaboration with Westat, Inc. and the Program Consultation Consortium (PCC), to conduct an evaluation of the Families F.I.R.S.T. project.
The evaluation focused on the extent to which the project's outcome goals and performance measures could be identified and operationalized. First, the evaluation sought to assess whether systems-level outcomes could be identified, included increased availability, timeliness, and accessibility of substance abuse treatment services. In addition, the evaluation assessed whether participant-level outcomes could be defined and measured, including reduction in child abuse/neglect, increasing the number of families obtaining employment, decreasing the frequency of drug/alcohol use, decreasing number of days in foster care, and increasing the number of children who achieve permanency. Finally, the evaluation examined the implementation of community substance abuse prevention and treatment programs across the state and the factors that contributed to their success.