Appendix A. Outreach Email – for staff connected to via program/agency

Appendix A. Outreach Email – for staff connected to via program/agency

OUTREACH EMAIL

For staff connected to via program/agency

Dear [NAME],

My name is [insert name] and I am a [insert position] at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that conducts research on social policy and practice with the goal of expanding opportunities for all people. Along with the University of Chicago, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, and Child Trends, we are part of a research team working with the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to conduct an evaluation of the Project Connect program. The study will provide rich information about how Project Connect operates and helps families involved in the child welfare system, the policy and substance use context it operates in, and stakeholders’ perceptions of the program. As part of this study, we are aiming to talk with [different health providers in the state to understand other substance use services]/[judicial stakeholders to understand the legal context and court system/other staff as applicable – fill in based on role of person we are contacting]. We were connected to you via [insert name and agency] as someone we might be able to interview for our study due to your role as [insert role].

We would like to set up a time to talk with you in the next couple of weeks either by Zoom, over the phone, or in person [depending on whether in-person data collection is allowed]. We expect the interview to last no longer than an hour. Participation is voluntary, and responses will be kept private (in that we will not attribute responses to a specific name). If it is okay with you, we would also like to record the interview. The information we learn from the interviews will be combined and quantified based on patterns across sites and will be archived with the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect at Cornell University. These files as part of the archive will not include any names or quote anyone personally and will only be available under password protected secure access.

If there is another person who you think we should speak with instead, we would appreciate it if you would give us their name and contact information.

Please let me know if you are interested or if you have any questions. I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Sincerely,

[Researcher Name and contact info]

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # and expiration date for the described information collection is OMB #: 0970-0XXX; expiration XX/XX/XXXX.