Success Coach History

The Duke Endowment approached Catawba County in 2006 to partner on a project, referred to as the Child Wellbeing Project, to look at the long-term wellbeing of children who experienced foster care. Catawba County Social Services was selected due to the agency’s history of innovation and its ability to implement a full continuum of services.

In 2007, the Child Wellbeing Project Design Team was established. At conception, the project was broadly based on the theory that if the post-permanency placement is stable and the elements of child wellbeing are present, the likelihood of child wellbeing and successful transition to adulthood and independence increases, and the likelihood of future child maltreatment and reentry into the child welfare system concomitantly decreases.

After consultation with experts in the field, post care became the focus of the project due to the lack of availability of post-care service models for all permanency types. An array of services were developed based on needs identified by adoptive parents, reunified parents, guardians, and child welfare staff through focus groups and literature review.

The National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), based at UNC Chapel Hill Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, became involved in the project in November 2007 to assist with project development and implementation of the service array. Independent Living Resources, Inc. was chosen as project evaluator for the pilot phase in September 2009. These organizations, along with The Duke Endowment, as the funder, and Catawba County Social Services, as the pilot site, served as project partners.