East Coast prof plays ball with L.A.

Among social services experts in Los Angeles, Dennis Culhane is considered top drawer. During the past few years, he’s won many fans for his cutting edge collaboration with county officials in determining how government services are used by the region’s disadvantaged populations.

Culhane also likes a good baseball game, which makes it a good thing he lives 2,500 miles away. On Wednesday, he was in the stands in Philadelphia as the home-team pitcher threw a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds in their first playoff game.

“I love Philly,” said Culhane, a professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Talk about your telecommute.

Culhane is now embarked on another study with L.A. County. This one will track the kinds and costs of government services used by about 30,000 former foster children and probation youths who left the county’s care—or “aged-out”—between 2002 and 2004. The hope is that the analysis will lead to improving and streamlining programs.

The innovative research relationship began in 2007, when Culhane met Manuel Moreno of the Chief Executive Office at a gathering on homeless policy at UCLA. Moreno was well regarded in his own right; Computerworld Magazine named him one of this year’s top 100 information technology innovators for his work in consolidating data across the county’s social service agencies.

The two researchers hit it off.

“They were really far ahead of the curve,” Culhane said of the work being performed by the research arm of the CEO’s Service Integration Branch, which Moreno heads.

“He’s an academic who really knows how to address policymakers in ways they understand,” Moreno said of his East Coast collaborator, who coauthors an annual report to Congress on homelessness.

Within a year of their meeting, Moreno and Culhane had tackled a joint project detailing the costs and types of county services being used by the county’s General Relief recipients. Joining the two back then was Culhane’s frequent research partner, University of Pennsylvania assistant professor Stephen Metraux, who also is involved in the current study of foster care and Probation youth.

That effort, funded by a $275,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, will reach beyond data collected by county departments and include state educational and employment records.

The researchers hope to be able to determine which transitional programs work best by seeing how the youth fared in staying in school, obtaining jobs and avoiding legal trouble. They’ll also explore issues of substance abuse and other health and mental health issues.

Data for the study should start flowing to Culhane at the University of Pennsylvania within a month or so, after information-sharing agreements are signed with state and county agencies. The report is scheduled for completion next spring.

“Working with Dennis,” Moreno said, “we are going to be able to tell how the youth have fared either in becoming self-sufficient or in becoming dependent on government services.”

The Department of Children and Family Services is eager for the results.

“Studies like this one help us identify how resources can be used more effectively to help children during a very challenging time—the transition to adulthood,” said DCFS director Trish Ploehn.

The researchers have more projects planned down the road.

Culhane is currently consulting with Moreno on a cost-benefit analysis of Project 50, the innovative program that provides housing and other services to Skid Row’s most chronically vulnerable homeless men and women.

The two men also plan to explore how veterans in Los Angeles use local services as part of a MacArthur Foundation grant Culhane is overseeing.

Posted 10-6-10