At 21, many foster youth “age out” of financial benefits and supports from the child welfare system—before they even finish college. Given the challenges they face, it’s not surprising that only 3 to 10 percent of them earn undergraduate degrees compared with 34 percent of young adults who weren’t in ...
One-third of the 400,000 children in foster care enter the system before age five, just as they should be making the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Seventy-five percent of kids in foster care must change schools, often multiple times, which means they tend to fall behind their classmates, miss more ...
Foundations invest millions of dollars to carry out their missions and change the world. How do they know their investments are working? AIR uses the strongest research evidence and deep experience in systems change across multiple sectors to support foundations, large and small, in fulfilling their missions. ...
Cross-sector collaboration is crucial to address the opioid crisis, and AIR’s new center on opioids is poised to play a role. The Center’s director, Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, addresses this and more.
Implementation science literature on organizational readiness for delivering evidence-based programs has predominantly focused on single entity providers; however, Pay for Success projects tend to use more complex networks of providers. This presentation from the American Evaluation Association Conference explores the implications of different provider constellations for readiness assessment. ...
Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, director of AIR’s Center for Addiction Research and Effective Solutions (AIR CARES) and a practicing physician at Heartland Alliance Health in Chicago, discusses her personal experience in treating patients with addiction and how research can help tackle the opioid epidemic. ...
This spotlight takes a look at the history of Title I, how the program has changed over time, and how it affects children, schools, families and education policy. Experts weigh in on the program's past and future in interviews, briefs, and blogs.
Based on a calculation using the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education and the 2013 U.S. Census, 2.5 million children in America—one in every 30 children—go to sleep without a home of their own each year. America’s Youngest Outcasts looks at child homelessness nationally and in the ...
Melissa Hafner is a principal researcher at AIR. Since 2007, she has led various qualitative and quantitative studies, and has managed complex projects involving high-level technical assistance in federal, nonprofit, and contracted research positions.
Hafner currently works on an evaluation of the California Health Foundation’s initiative to integrate behavioral health in ...
We are on the frontline of work that focuses on the physical context in which people use drugs and the intersection of climate change, the built environment, and harm reduction.