The Improve Group recently researched and analyzed the supplemental services of Minnesota Department of Human Services’ Group Residential Housing (GRH) Program. Through this program, housing is available to people with a wide spectrum of needs to prevent institutional residence or homelessness. The supplemental services provide additional support to help people be stable and secure in their housing. The following are some insights that came from the project:
Importance of the Evaluation
This evaluation project was important because it offered an objective assessment of how GRH was working and whether it was working as intended. A main focus of the research was the service rate – the money that is paid to cover the supplemental services. There had never previously been an assessment of whether that money was being spent effectively, if payments were structured in a way that aligned with outcomes, and if the right services were being funded. This information was important to assess in order to determine whether the money was being well spent. At the start of the evaluation, there was no common understanding of how the funding worked, no requirements or clear expectations were in place, and no research to determine what services were most appropriate for serving the intended population.
Challenges Faced
The study had several challenges. The biggest constraint that we had was working in a very tight timeframe; a report was required to be submitted to the legislature before the session started this winter. The second biggest challenge was deciding which questions to answer in that timeframe to be of the greatest use for policy makers. To address both challenges, we recruited an advisory group that helped us decide what to focus on and made introductions for us that helped us gather data very quickly. The advisory group also helped us as we were analyzing the data by thinking through how different groups - policy makers, program managers, service providers - could use the insights from the work.
Overall Experience
Overall, the experience we had working with GRH was overwhelmingly positive. We formed a great partnership for carrying out the work. From relying upon close collaboration with our client, frequent communication, and a commitment to attention to detail, the Improve Group team involved in this project brought together multiple levels of data and insights from numerous stakeholders to develop a set of recommendations with multiple options for systematizing and providing compliance for the flow of funds for needed recipient services. We are very excited to see how the recommendations will be used to inform future decision making for the program.
For those interested in more info on the GRH program, the final report will be publicly available once it has gone through the legislature. We will be sharing this report through Improve Group social media at that time.