Ilan Katz & John Pinkerton 
Evaluating Family Support 
Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically

The delivery of effective family support is a key global childwelfare issue, yet there is little consensus on what constitutesfamily support or what the best ways are to evaluate it.

Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically offers a full review of the conceptual andoperational problems involved in this complex and topicalfield.

Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton have brought together a team ofexperienced child care policy analysts and evaluators to presentthe current state of critical thinking alongside detailedinternational case studies. The chapters offer revealing glimpsesinto the nature of family support across the world, as well as anoverview of the challenges facing both practitioners andresearchers.

Table of Content

List of Illustrations.

About the Editors.

List of Contributors.

Foreword by Heather B. Weiss.

Acknowledgements.

PART I: THE NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON.

1. Perspective through International Comparison in the Evaluation of Family Support (John Pinkerton and Ilan Katz).

PART II: UNDERPINNING ISSUES.

2. Political and Technical Issues Facing Evaluators of Family Support (Jane Tunstill).

3. Social Exclusion, Family Support and Evaluation (Corinne May-Chahal, et al.).

4. The Value of Resilience as a Key Concept in Evaluating Family Support (Robbie Gilligan).

5. Issues in Evaluating Family Support Services: An American Perspective (Peter Pecora).

6. Comparative Research as a Method of Evaluating Systems(Rachael Hetherington).

PART III: ‘CASE STUDIES’ FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

7. National Policy Making and the Need to Evaluate Family Support in the Republic of Ireland (Catherine Hazlett).

8. A Culturally Relevant Model for Evaluating Family Services in Hong Kong (Monit Cheung and Chi-Kwong Law).

9. Lessons from the Evaluation of Fa mily Support in New Zealand(Jackie Sanders and Robyn Munford).

10. A Nationaln Evaluation of Family Support Services: An Evaluation of Services Provided by the NSPCC in the United Kingdom(Ruth Gardner).

11. Empowering Parents: A Two-Generation Intervention in a Community Context in Northern Ireland (Nuala Quiery, etal.).

12. The Indicators Study: An Cross-Site Implementation Evaluation of the Community Partnerships for Protecting Children Initiative in America (Stephen Budde).

13. Policy Roots and Practice Growth: Evaluating Family Supporton the West Coast of Ireland (John Canavan and Pat Dolan).

14. The Resourceful Adolescent Project: A Universal Approach to Preventing Adolescent Depression through Promoting Resilience and Family-Well Being in Australia (Ian Shochet and David Ham).

15. Evaluation of the Contact Family Service in Sweden (Gunvor Andersson).

PART IV: TOWARDS AN INTERNATIONAL AGENDA.

16. International Convergence and Divergence: Towards an Open System Model in the Evaluation of Family Support (Ilan Katz and John Pinkerton).

Index.

About the author

Ilan Katz is the editor of Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically , published by Wiley.

John Pinkerton is the editor of Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Internationally, Thinking Critically , published by Wiley.