Monmouth Family Center Merger: A Series of Five Research Reports Assessing the Effects of Merging the Family Service Division of the Monmouth County Welfare Board With the Division of Youth and Family Services

摘要

This document presents five reports that assess the impact of the Monmouth Family Center (MFC), a merger of the county welfare board's family services division with a district office of the New Jersey State Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), 5 years after its implementation in 1975. The DYFS staff had dealt primarily with child protective services while the county staff worked directly with families, making referrals to DYFS when necessary. The merger was designed to bring more help to low - income families and avoid duplication of services. Problems encountered in the consolidation included coping with the different legal and programmatic mandates and administrative separateness. Because of data limitations, this evaluation decided to compare selected MFC operations with current operations of other human service agencies that had not been combined and selected aspects of current MFC programs with information gathered before the merger. The evaluation consisted of five separate studies. The first report summarized impressions graduate students formed about the MFC while working part - time in the unit. These students perceived several weaknesses, including lack of response to emergency situations not requiring protective services, indifference toward older adolescents, questionable recordkeeping practices, and poor supervision. The second report examined attitudes of 60 probation officers in 2 counties toward the MFC. While most officers gave favorable ratings to coordination between their agency and the MFC, many also had negative opinions of the professionalism of the MFC workers and their products. Overall, no preference was shown for the unified system over the previous organizations. The third report presented statistical comparisons between Monmouth County and the remaining 20 counties for 1973 and 1976 to 1978, based on child master records. The fourth study compared attitudes of foster parents in 1975 with attitudes of current foster parents and concluded that levels of satisfaction had decreased since the merger. The final report analyzes interviews with 24 informants who were employees of either agency before the merger and were currently assigned to MFC. It was impossible to conclude from these reports that the MFC functions better or worse than its predecessors, although it appears to be operating just as well. Executive summaries, tables, and survey instruments are included.