Early Childhood, Child Welfare, Tribal Initiatives and Behavioral Health
At the Butler Institute for Families, our expertise spans evaluation and applied research, workforce development and capacity building in the areas of early childhood, child welfare, tribal initiatives and behavioral health. Although we don’t provide direct services to families and youth, we do provide critical practice knowledge, training, coaching, and support to the agencies and organizations that directly serve children and families. By strengthening programs, systems and communities, we enhance the well-being of children, youth and families.
100+The Butler Institute is home to more than 100 research projects, including 15 intervention studies.
Early Childhood
We leverage our deep understanding of interventions, learning and behavior, and complex, interconnected systems to strengthen the early childhood workforce and improve early childhood settings and systems.
We strive to explicitly address equity and inclusion through evaluation designs and program improvements. Our research and evaluation projects increase understanding of what works in child welfare practice, and we offer innovative, evidence-based approaches to engage the workforce and advance workforce knowledge and skills.
We aim to create a deeper understanding of the role of culture in tribal program operations and service delivery. We believe that culture is prevention, and we integrate community-defined evidence practices into our work to strengthen tribal sovereignty.
With an emphasis on substance use treatment, we partner with a wide variety of organizations nationwide to evaluate client- and organizational-level behavioral health outcomes, implement outcome measurement systems and support implementation fidelity. We also assist with evaluation of behavioral health workforce development programs.
“Frequent and quality family contact leads to faster and more stable reunifications … Culturally centered family contact strengthens sense of self, builds community ties and honors differences.”
Kristin Clark, R.O.C.K. Mat-Su Family Contact Improvement Partnership
Partner with us to strengthen child-, youth-, family- and community-serving systems.