The Nathaniel Project: Manualizing the Committed Work of an Innovative Program and Monitoring the Program's Transformation
The Nathaniel Project: Manualizing the Committed Work of an Innovative Program and Monitoring the Program's Transformation
Co-Principal Investigators: Colleen Gillespie, Ph.D., Kim Hopper, Ph.D.
PROJECT GOALSGoals are to describe the nature and characteristics of an innovative program that provides alternatives to incarceration for felony offenders with serious mental illness (the Nathaniel Project at the Center for Alternative Sentencing); and to then use this description of the key operating principles of the program as a baseline to track the program’s evolution as it transforms itself into an ACT Team.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES AND RESULTSMethod: The key “operating principles” of the Nathaniel Project, the ingredients and approaches that its designers feel are necessary for a program to be a successful alternative to incarceration were delineated. Data was collected on the strategies, approaches, techniques, ad hoc arrangements and collateral conditions/provisions developed by the program to convince judges, assistant district attorneys, public defenders, defendants and service providers to work together to make the program function effectively. A second arena of study was the day-to-day activities and approaches that inform the relationships between staff and participants as well as the qualities and characteristics that appear to be essential for doing the work of the Nathaniel Project. Data have been collected through focus groups and interviews with staff, administrators, mental health treatment and housing providers, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, shadowed staff, and observed court proceedings. In addition, archival materials have been analyzed, including promotional and procedural materials associated with the Nathaniel Project. The relevant IRBs approved these activities under an expanded version of the Decision-Making Study initiated by CG several years ago.
Using a quasi-grounded theory approach
and an organizing analytic framework, the data (text segments from interviews,
focus groups, field notes, court observations, etc.) were coded.
A qualitative software program (Atlas TI) was used to analyze the data,
largely involving the sorting and grouping of coded segments in order to derive
a list of the values that informed and the operating principles that determined
the work of the Nathaniel Project. As
reported previously, the data showcased the Nathaniel Project’s role as a
boundary spanner, connecting very disparate systems (criminal justice and
mental health and social service systems), and demonstrated the importance
of partnering and relationship-building with all involved, including participating
consumers, court personnel, mental health treatment providers, housing providers,
and social service providers. A schema
was developed to organize and graphically depict the organizing principles.
Results:
Preliminary results suggest that building and maintaining
relationships is a central strategy and underlying value of the Nathaniel
Project. Such relationships are central to gaining the trust of both the court
and the defendants. Creating and sustaining these relationships, however,
requires tremendous amounts of time and effort as well as a willingness to
go outside the traditional boundaries of human services work in terms of the
hours worked especially those that occur outside of the 9 to 5, Monday through
Friday paradigm and in terms of the emotional intensity invested. These results
were presented at the American Public Health Association Conference in November,
2003 (San Francisco, CA) and an expanded version was also presented at the
Center for Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice Research Conference
(Reentry to Recovery: People with mental illness coming from jail or prison)
in April, 2004 (Philadelphia, PA).
POLICY IMPLICATIONSThe results of this study should help program planners and policy makers determine the elements and features that are essential to creating effective alternatives to incarceration for people with serious mental illness charged with felony offenses. This study also serves as a critical first step in designing an internally and externally valid evaluation of the Nathaniel Project approach.
PLANSCurrently, these results are being written up in the form of an article with a particular focus on developing an enhanced logic model describing the Nathaniel Project. The model describes not only the structure and flow of services, but also the values and operating principles that inform the content and tone of those services and transactions. Additional funding is being sought for one more year of research to articulate the program theory underlying the Nathaniel Project approach, compare the original to two new editions of the Nathaniel Project, depict the full complexity of causal relationships in the logic model, including consumer-driven goals and expectancies, and test out the feasibility of longitudinal follow-up of program “graduates.”
Entered: July 17, 2003
Updated: July, 2004
