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Protect MiFamily -Title IV-E Waiver

Protect MiFamily, Michigan's Title IV-E Waiver project, is a 15-month in-home prevention and preservation service for families with children ages 0-5 who are facing challenges that put them at high risk for future Children's Protective Services (CPS) involvement.

The five-year project enables the state to use Title IV-E funds to test innovative strategies that prevent child abuse and neglect, avert foster care entry and re-entry, speed reunification, and improve child safety and well-being, rather than spending those dollars on the placement of children into licensed foster care. Through this project, it is our goal to help parents meet the needs of their young children and increase safety in their homes.

We now have an interim evaluation report from two outside entities that shows progress in the first half of the five-year project. Among the findings in the report from the statistical services company Westat and the University of Michigan:

  • For families that completed the entire Protect MiFamily program, subsequent child removals due to abuse and neglect occurred 4.6 percent of the time, compared to 10.8 percent for a control group of families in the three counties that didn’t receive Protect MiFamily services.
  • Families who received Protect MiFamily services spoke positively about its effect on their family. More than 90 percent of families said they were getting the services they need.
  • Thirty percent of young children in Protect MiFamily showed improvement in their emotional and social development as measured by the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment for cases in which parents participated in the full dose of Protect MiFamily.

View the Reports >>
Protect MiFamily Interim Report, July 2016
Protect MiFamily Final Report, January 2019

Want to learn more? Check out what some of the local media outlets had to say about the Protect MiFamily project when it launched.

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Additional Resources

Assessment Tools

Tools to help assessments of children and family structures

Contractors

Contractors

Evaluation

Evaluation

Expected Outcomes

Expected Outcomes

Protect MI Family Contacts

Protect MI Family Contacts

Understanding Michigan's Waiver project

Understanding Michigan's Waiver project