Youth Advocacy Grant Data Collection and Reporting Frequently Asked Questions

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1 Youth Advocacy Grant Data Collection and Reporting Frequently Asked Questions A) Reporting Forms and Tools 1) Where do I find the data collection and reporting forms required by the Youth Advocacy Grant? All the data collection and reporting forms, along with detailed instructions for completion, can be found on our CASAforChildren website in the State and Local Program Section under Reporting Tools. To access the forms follow this link. 2) What data collection forms are required for the Youth Advocacy Grant? The Youth Life Skills Assessment (for children 14 and older) The Youth Advocacy Tracking Sheet will allow you to track all information that is required for reporting on this grant. You are required to use the tracking form to track the required information. 3) What reporting forms are required for the Youth Advocacy Grant? Monthly Expense Report submitted through GBIS Semiannual Grantee Report submitted through survey monkey Grantee Narrative Report submitted through 4) What if our program already assigns an identification number to volunteers and/or youth participating in our program? If your program already assigns ID numbers to volunteers and youth, you are free to use those numbers for the assessment instruments and tracking. If the volunteers and youth are not assigned an ID, we ask that you follow the guidance in the Evaluation ID Assignment Instructions to do so. 5) Is it possible for us to adapt the Youth Advocacy Grantee Tracking Sheet to better meet the needs of our program? You are limited in the changes you can make in the tracking sheet. The document is protected, and you are able to add/delete rows/columns, and sort the rows. We ask that you don t delete any of the columns that were created on the original form. 6) How will we know if our volunteers and youth are completing the Youth Life Skills Assessments?

2 On a monthly basis National CASA will distribute a list of volunteer/youth ID numbers for those who have completed the assessments. The list will only include ID#s, program name, and date completed. 7) Can we keep the tracking sheet on our server to work on and then upload it for review or do we have to work on it always directly from the NCASA site? The tracking sheet is an Excel document that you will download and keep on your server. You do not have to upload or send it to us for review. The tracking sheet has auto populated reports that are generated from the information you enter. You will then enter the numbers from the auto-populated reports into the Semiannual Grantee Report submitted through Survey Monkey. 8) Is there a password or way to unlock the Youth Advocacy Grantee Report Tracking Sheet? I downloaded it, but it does not allow me to enter any information. You will not be able to edit the last two tabs in the sheet (reporting tabs). They are protected and automatically populated when you enter information in the Volunteer and Youth tabs. If you are having trouble entering information into the Volunteer and Youth tabs, please let us know. 9) Does the post Youth Life Skills Assessment only need to be completed at either the completion of a case or at the one year mark from the date the pre Youth Life Skills Assessment was completed? The post Youth Life Skills Assessment is to be completed either case close date or one year after the pre assessment was completed, whichever comes first. If the grant ends before the one year mark, please complete post assessment at that time. 10) If a youth turns 18 while the case is open, do we continue to have them fill out the pre Life Skills Assessment or should they complete the post Life Skills Assessment when they turn 18? If a youth turns 18 while the case is open please have them complete the pre Youth Life Skills Assessment. The pre Youth Life Skills Assessment should be completed, by both the volunteer and the youth, upon assignment to the case, preferably within one to two months. The post Youth Life Skills Assessment is not tied to a child turning 18 and should happen one year later, again, with both the volunteer and the youth completing the assessment. If the youth s case closes before the one year mark, the assessment should be administered at case closure. If the grant period ends before one year, the post Youth Life Skills Assessment should be done at that point. 11) Can we add another location (county) option to the #2 question as the CASA program serves more than one county and the volunteer is serving the county that is not listed on the tracking sheet?

3 Unfortunately, we are not able to add additional location (county) options to the drop down box of question #2 of the survey. We are only able to list the grantee programs. All volunteers should be listed under the grantee program even if they are serving a different county. 12) Is there a way to get a PDF copy of both the Youth and Volunteer Life Skills Assessment, without the instructions attached? The only way is to obtain the document is to download it from the website. You can download the document and remove the first four pages of instructions. B) Youth 1) Which children are eligible to be counted in our reporting as part of the grant project? A child must be 7 years old at the time they are assigned to the volunteer. If they are 6 when they begin working with the volunteer, then they do not count for this grant purpose. There are fields on the Youth Advocacy Grantee Tracking Sheet to help you determine their eligibility. 2) How should we track a child that exits and reenters during the grant period? If a child s case is closed and reopened during the grant period, count the child as both a new case and a closed case. In the tracking sheet, please create separate records for each entry, as if it is a new child and give the child a new ID number. 3) Which youth should participate in the Youth Life Skills Assessment? Youth age 14 and over should participate in the Youth Life Skills Assessment. Both the youth and the volunteer complete the assessment. If the youth is 13 when the grant starts and then turns 14 at any time during the grant period, they should take the assessment when they turn 14. 4) The proposal is originally focused on children ages Am I right in thinking that this is the chosen age group largely because one of the key pieces of data is promotion of grade level and age 7 is absolutely school-aged? The grant is focused on this age group as it is a mentoring grant and the guidance we received from Child Trends, our evaluation partner, is that the effectiveness of mentoring begins with youth around age 7. 5) Is the program required to share the pre and post Youth Life Skills Assessments with DFS and receive consent from the social worker for foster children to fill out the pre and post Youth Life Skills Assessment? Is the program required to share and receive consent from the parents if the child is under parents custody but under protective supervision? We are concerned that some of the questions are quite personal and may not be appropriate to ask children who are in crisis.

4 We are leaving it up to programs how they involve DFS in this project. We certainly understand that some of the more sensitive questions may not be able to be asked of a child in crisis. We also know there may be times when the child does not complete the Youth Life Skills Assessment. In those cases we will be depending on the volunteer to submit their version of the Youth Life Skills Assessment. If the youth finds some of the items on the assessment to be too personal, they are free to skip those questions. 6) If DFS does not consent to the youth taking the pre and post Life Skills Assessments due to taking Life Skill Assessments from other agencies, how can we track this? We understand that your DFS may not allow the youth in their custody to complete the Youth Life Skills Assessment. In those cases, we ask that your volunteers submit their assessments of the youth. C) Volunteers 1) Can, and if so how can, volunteers already active in our program be counted in relation to the Youth Advocacy Grant? If you have existing volunteers who showed interest in taking on an additional case with a child who is part of the target population, that s great! In the tracking sheet you are asked if this is a new volunteer, and if you answer no, that it is an existing volunteer, the fields for pre-service training and swearing in will be greyed out, signifying that you do not need to enter that information. 2) How do we track a situation where a volunteer has to leave a case mid-grant period and a new CASA volunteer is assigned to the case of a child aged 7-17? If the youth is reassigned to another volunteer during the grant period, the youth should keep their original evaluation ID number. The new volunteer should be added to the volunteer tracking sheet to be counted towards the grant. 3) On the evaluation ID number assignment instructions, it states: One of the outcomes includes volunteer recruitment, which is defined as any person who made initial contact with CASA about becoming a volunteer. Do we need to assign an ID to anyone who makes an inquiry and shows interest in serving the grant population? All volunteers who make initial contact with the program during the grant period should be assigned an evaluation ID number even if they do not take a case. 4) Can volunteers share the results of the Life Skills Assessment with the county social worker, child s attorney, etc? If the county social worker, child s attorney, etc. are covered by the confidentiality protections of your state statute (e.g. they are entitled to receive confidential information about the child) you

5 can share the information. We feel they could benefit from the information in their work with the child. Who should I contact if I have questions about the grant data collection and reporting? Contact survey@casaforchildren.org.