Highlighted Clients
Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families,
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
In addition to our work with the Children’s Bureau Capacity Building Center for States, Clarus Research has served as a reviewer of and local evaluator on HHS grants and cooperative agreements. For example, we led a multi-site, mixed-methods evaluation of implementation efforts to create trauma-informed child welfare systems on three tribal reservations in Montana and co-led an experimental, mixed-methods implementation and outcome evaluation of family team conferencing models in Alachua County, Florida.
Depaul International
Depaul International oversees the Depaul Group, which is made up internationally of seven subsidiary charities committed to ending homelessness and improving the lives of the people affected by it around the world. Clarus Research was selected by Depaul International to conduct a three-phase project in three of its subsidiaries: Ireland, United Kingdom, and United States. The project aims to adopt Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in working with people experiencing homelessness. Clarus serves as a learning partner to test the ACT training approach and to develop and implement a mixed-methods and cost-inclusive evaluation plan that includes ACT fidelity monitoring, an implementation study, and an outcome study.
Equal Justice Works
Equal Justice Works is a non-profit that provides training and opportunities for law students and lawyers to explore and increase their dedication to careers in public service. Clarus conducted formative, mixed-methods evaluations of their Disaster Recovery Legal Corps and Rural Legal Summer Corps programs through which legal Fellows provide legal services to low-income and marginalized communities.
ICF International
For a decade, Clarus partnered with ICF International, providing evaluation capacity building and subject matter expertise on implementation science, continuous quality improvement, and other content areas of child welfare practice via the Child Welfare Capacity Building Center for States. The Center for States was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children’s Bureau to help public child welfare organizations and professionals build the capacity necessary to strengthen, implement, and sustain effective child welfare practice and to achieve better outcomes for children, youth, and families. Through this project, the Clarus team supported multiple child welfare improvement efforts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, and Texas. In Arizona, California, and Kansas, Clarus provided technical assistance to enhance engagement with federally recognized Tribes.
Office of Inspector General,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws to protect job applicants or employees from discrimination based on race, color, religion, pregnancy, gender identify, sexual orientation, national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. To process discrimination charges, the EEOC contracts with approximately 90 Fair Employment Practice Agencies (FEPAs) nationwide to process over 48,000 discrimination charges annually. Clarus was selected to evaluate the EEOC’s management and oversight of FEPAs. Clarus designed and implemented a mixed-methods evaluation study using the following methods: surveys, interviews, focus groups, and a systematic document review. The evaluation employed a utilization-focused approach to facilitate the use of evaluation findings by the EEOC. Evidence-based recommendations from the evaluation focused on improving processes and products that support FEPAs in meeting case quality standards. To read the public report, please click here.
National Fish & Wildlife Foundation
NFWF is the largest private conservation grant-maker in the country, working with the public and private sectors to restore our fish, wildlife, plants, and habitat. Clarus has been co-principal investigator with Dantzker Consulting and others on evaluations of important NFWF programs. For the Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) Grants Program, we evaluated the innovative practices of more than 100 grantees to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Clarus led the development and administration of complex surveys to study grantee dissemination of INSR-funded best management practices (BMPs) and wider adoption of those INSR-funded BMPs among stakeholders across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. To read the public reports, please click here.
National Women's Law Center
The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) fights for gender justice – in the courts, in public policy, and in society – working across all issues that are central to the lives of women and girls and driving solutions to address gender inequities that harm all of us. NWLC selected Clarus Research to help them develop and launch a Community Impact Fund (CIF). The goal of the CIF is to help communities identify and lead strategies to address the lack of affordable early childhood education and poor compensation of early childhood educators across our country – particularly for families and early educators who identify and BIPOC and/or immigrant families and women. The CIF features a participatory grassroots grant development process. Working with community advocates in two states, the Clarus team applied an implementation-science based strategic planning framework to guide participants through: conducting deeper problem exploration and root cause analysis using local and national data; developing a sound theory of change for achieving desired outcomes; identifying strategies to address root causes and contributing factors; and developing a sound evaluation approach to understand whether and how strategies resulted in desired outcomes. The planning process culminated in a request for proposals to be distributed across two states. NWLC funded a project in each state to implement identified strategies and to learn about what works in communities to improve outcomes.
NORC at the University of Chicago
The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago is a nonpartisan organization that conducts rigorous research and analysis in the public interest. Clarus Research was a co-investigator with NORC on a mixed-methods, randomized controlled trial evaluation study of policing strategies funded by the National Institute of Justice. Clarus designed and executed the qualitative components of the study to examine implementation and outcomes using a series of interviews and focus groups with police officers, police supervisors, police command staff, and community members. Clarus led the integrative analysis of quantitative and qualitative implementation data and prepared a manuscript that was published in Police Quarterly. The article culminates with an evidence- and implementation science-based framework that law enforcement organizations can adopt to better achieve desired outcomes from place-based, proactive policing strategies to reduce crime and achieve broader police force and community benefits. To read the public report, please click here.
Missoula Public Health
Missoula Public Health commissioned a study to assess vaccine access and barriers in Missoula County, Montana. Clarus Research, in partnership with the University of Montana Center for Population Health Research, conducted a county-wide study that included designing and administering a survey (available online via Qualtrics and as a paper and pencil version) and conducting qualitative interviews. The final report included detailed, actionable recommendations borne out of study findings to promote vaccine services offered by Missoula Public Health.
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) conducts applied research and evaluation to support and inform an effective service array within the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS). The OUHSC selected Clarus Research to design and lead two qualitative studies of OKDHS services designed to support reunification and permanency for families involved in the child welfare system. For the first study of OKDHS’ Intensive Safety Services (ISS) program, Clarus recruited and completed 35 in-depth, qualitative interviews with parents receiving intensive family preservation services. Qualitative findings were used to inform interpretation of quantitative data from OUHSC’s experimental study of ISS effectiveness. For the second study, Clarus conducted approximately 40 in-depth and hybrid survey-interviews with biological parents, kinship caregivers, OKDHS staff and supervisors, community providers, and administrative leaders of the Family Team, Resources, Evaluation, and Education (TREE) program. The Family TREE is a multidisciplinary, one-stop shop, including mental and physical health resources for families in foster care with the goal of reunification. Results from the study were used to inform data-driven decision making about which components of the Family TREE model should be spread statewide.
