The Court Improvement Program aims to improve court practice in child abuse and neglect cases so that the three goals of safety, permanence, and well-being for each child are achieved in a fair and timely manner. (Well-being is defined by the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 as factors that relate to a child’s current and future welfare, most notably the child’s educational achievement and mental and physical health.) 

Training for attorneys, judges, and other court personnel who are working with families involved with the child and family service system.

Funder: Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children, Youth, and Families Division

Contact: Jeff Folsom

The Center is working with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) to develop sustainable state systems supporting PAX GBG. In this project we will work with agency and school local leaders to create a state, regional and district teaming structure to grow and sustain PAX GBG. The teams are working on building their capacity to develop data, communication, professional development, teaming and coaching systems. State leadership is also working to identify funding streams to sustain PAX GBG implementation and improve student outcomes. 

Evaluation: The Center will evaluate the effectiveness of teaming structure, State, Regional and District Capacity, Level of PAX GBG implementation and student outcomes.

Funder: Montana Healthcare Foundation

Contact: Carol Ewen

The Center is identifying existing strategies, creative solutions, and needed resources for behavioral health workforce recruitment and retention. Behavioral health agencies are invited to participate in learning collaboratives with the goal of implementing innovative recruitment and retention strategies.

Funder: Behavioral Health and Disabilities Division, MT-DPHHS

Contact: Jeff Folsom

The Center is helping to expand the public health workforce by training new and existing Community Health Workers (CHWs) and health support workers with specialized training and financial support to offset expenses that would impede success in training. The Program’s goal is to provide training so that 75% of participants become newly credentialed CHWs and health support workers. The Center will extend and upskill the public health workforce by developing new or enhancing existing curriculum to increase the skills and competencies of existing CHWs and health support workers. Also the Center will increase CHW and health support worker employment readiness through field placements and apprenticeships developed in collaboration with a network of partnerships that will enable trainees to respond to and support essential public health services and provide them with employment opportunities. This will advance health equity and support for underserved communities by increasing the number of CHWs and health support workers that are employed as integral members of integrated care teams that use their expanded skills to reduce health disparities.

Funder: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

Contact: Mackenzie Petersen

The Center partnered with the Missoula College Paramedicine Program to develop an online Community Integrated Health curriculum for community paramedics. Community Integrated Health, an emerging field in healthcare, expands the role of EMTs and paramedics so that they can more effectively respond to underserved populations and fill gaps in care in a community.

Funder: Montana Healthcare Foundation

Contact: Arin O'Boyle

The Disease Intervention Specialist project aims to expand, increase, and sustain the DIS workforce to support jurisdictional communicable disease prevention and response through training and increased collaboration among county health departments. The training needs will be addressed using online training modules with virtual follow-up coaching sessions. The use of ProjectECHO®, with its all-teach, all-learn format, will engage the local health departments through didactic teaching and case presentations with discussion and recommendations.  

Evaluation: The Center evaluates participant satisfaction and increased knowledge through surveys embedded throughout the online training and at the end of ProjectECHO® sessions.  

Funder: MT DPHHS, Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Bureau, HIV/STD/HCV Section

Contact: Hannah Tougas

The ERAT Program augments the primary care workforce serving rural and medically underserved populations in the State of Montana by: 1) providing global enhancement of rural training for all residents; 2) developing and implementing focused rural training experiences for selected residents, including a rural intensive track and a longitudinal rural ambulatory experience; and 3) providing site-specific training to primary care faculty and preceptors at rural healthcare sites. This program is administered by UM’s Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana.  

Evaluation: The Center serves on the evaluation team. The impact evaluation methodology includes the use of rapid cycle quality improvement (RCQI) allowing for ongoing assessment of the objectives and real-time adjustment of the multiple activities. Formative and summative evaluations will be conducted on a routine/regular basis to determine progress towards outcomes. Numerous process and outcome variables will be measured across time that include HRSA’s required performance measures. Program feasibility and effectiveness for replicability are also being studied throughout the life of the grant. The Center is responsible for ongoing evaluation as well as all internal Quarterly Reports and yearly HRSA Reports. 

Funder: HRSA 

Contact: Kristen Rogers 

MTDPHHS has contracted with The Center to organize Project ECHO for three projects: Disease Intervention Specialists (DIS, HIV prevention, and hepatitis C virus (HCV). ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is an evidence-based, hub-and-spoke tele-mentoring, training, and education model that utilizes an interactive format to improve patient care, decrease health access disparities, and support healthcare providers in rural and frontier communities. Led by subject matter experts, Project ECHO includes didactic learning and case presentations with question-and-answer loops for peer support and case-based learning. The target audience for DIS is Montana DIS workers and interested public health professionals and community members. The target audience for the HIV and HCV ECHOs are healthcare providers interested in building expertise in evaluating and managing patients living with chronic hepatitis C and in providing PrEP and PEP for HIV prevention. 

Funder: MT DPHHS, Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Bureau, HIV/STD/HCV Section

Contact: Stacie Pannell

Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribe (CSKT) houses the SPIP project focused on reducing suicide among their tribal population. This will be accomplished through the improvement of care coordination; expansion of behavioral health services through culturally appropriate, evidence-based models; and the development of activities for the Generation Indigenous Initiative by developing early intervention strategies for youth and adults at risk for suicidal behavior. The Center is conducting hypothesis-driven research and evaluation of the SPIP project through the analysis of process and outcome measures.

Funder: US DHHS Indian Health Services

Contact: Ashley Glass

Training, technical assistance, tuition assistance, and research/evaluation services to help Montana’s CFSD prevent child abuse and neglect.

The evaluation has three separate aims designed to increase the competency and confidence of new and existing workers and resource families. Child welfare literature indicates well-prepared workers are less likely to turnover resulting in a stable, higher-quality workforce. And well-trained and supported resource families are likelier to remain licensed and continue fostering. As a result, in both instances, states see improved outcomes for children and families. Current evaluations: 1) New workers' in-person and eLearning onboarding and training. 2) All workers regarding new state-mandated training on ongoing skill development. 3) New or ongoing resource parent licensure training. 

Funder: MT DPHHS, Child and Family Services Division

Contact: Kerrie Ghenie

As part of the Zero Suicide Project, the Center is implementing Caring Contacts in tribal communities. Caring Contacts is an evidence-based suicide prevention strategy that provides automated text phone messages with culturally relevant, positive messaging and links to health and behavioral health resources sent to interested behavioral health patients. 

Evaluation: The Center is evaluating Caring Contacts. Qualitative and quantitative data are collected via participant surveys deployed by a text messaging vendor (Mosio) and analyzed for quality improvement and participant satisfaction.

Funder: SAMHSA

Contact: Kate Chapin

The Center is evaluating the Montana Child Care Innovation and Infrastructure Program funded by the Montana DPHHS Early Childhood and Family Services Division (ECSFD).

We are evaluating the efforts and outcomes of 30 grantees funded by Montana DPHHS to assess how they expanded access to child care.

Funder: Headwaters Foundation

Contact: Mary Collins

The Center is conducting a research project to help inform early child care and education (ECCE) workforce recruitment and retention strategies to be implemented and/or supported by the Early Childhood and Family Support Division.

The research project consists of a national scan and a review of existing data in Montana.

Funder: Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Early Childhood and Family Support Division

Contact: Mary Collins

The Center provides wrap-around capacity development services to Early Childhood Coalitions (ECCs) throughout Montana. Through meaningful thought partnership and adaptable support, the Center empowers ECCs, both individually and collectively, to affect significant and sustainable improvements to Montana’s early childhood system. The Center's robust array of services helps our partners maximize their available resources and develop skills and strategies. The Center co-facilitates the Montana Early Childhood Coalition (MTECC) in partnership with Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, and Zero to Five Montana. It provides ECCs with support in the following areas:

• Program Sustainability  
• Data-Driven Decision Making  
• Outreach and Marketing  
• Revenue and Resource Maximization  
• Policy Leadership 

Evaluation: Track process and outcome measures related to the five categories of capacity development support.  

Funder: Headwaters Foundation 

Contact: Mary Collins

The Center is working with DPHHS Behavioral Health and Disabilities Division on the following projects:

1. Behavioral health workforce recruitment and retention
2. Family partnership and engagement in behavioral health services
3. Leadership, consultation, and informed thought partnership in behavioral health policy
4. Addressing systemic barriers and developing provider capacity in serving youth with unmet complex needs 

Funder: Montana DPHHS Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities Division

Contact: Jeff Folsom

The Center will facilitate the needs assessment survey for the Montana Bright Futures Preschool Development Birth to Five Grant on behalf of the Montana DPHHS Early Childhood and Family Services Division (ECSFD).

We are conducting a statewide survey and analyzing the results to be part of the statewide needs assessment of Montana's early childhood system.

Funder: Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Early Childhood and Family Support Division

Contact: Mary Collins

The PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) is a school-based universal preventive intervention used to teach self-regulation, self-management, and self-control in children. PAX GBG provides educators with strategies to teach social-emotional and behavioral skills and academics, creating a trauma-informed nurturing environment. PAX GBG has been proven to change student brain chemistry with life-long effects that dramatically impact mental health, substance abuse, graduation rates, and suicide in our children and communities. 

Funder: MT DPHHS, Behavioral Health and Disabilities Division (BHDD) 

Contact: Carol Ewen

The Center is partnering with the University of Missouri and the National Center for Rural School Mental Health to develop and evaluate the Early Identification System (EIS), where rural schools screen students and provide evidence-based interventions. Rural schools are invited to participate and are placed in control and experimental groups. This is a five-year project and has been extended for two additional years (ending 2026) 

Funder: Institute of Education Science

Contact: Carol Ewen