START Outcomes

Prevention

Children in START were 50% less likely to enter out of home placement than children from a matched comparison group. ¹

Permanency

At case closure, more than 75% of children in START remained with or were reunified with their parent. ²

Parental Recovery & Capacity

Mothers in START had higher rates of sobriety and early recovery than a matched comparison group (66% vs. 37%). ³

Improved Systems

START leads to cross-system transformation toward a family-centered service delivery model.

Sustained Effect

At 12 months post-intervention, more children in START remained free from both out-of-home placement and recurrence of child abuse and neglect as compared to children served in treatment as usual (68.5% vs. 56%). ⁴

Return on Investment

For every $1.00 spent on START, jurisdictions potentially saved $2.22 on costs associated with out-of-home placement. ⁵

Endnotes

1 Huebner, R.A., Willauer, T., and Posze, L. (2012). The impact of Sobriety Treatment and
Recovery Teams (START) on family outcomes. Families in Society, 93(3), 196-203.
2 Huebner, R.A., Willauer, T., Posze, L., Hall, M.T., & Oliver, J. (2015). Application of the evaluation
framework for program improvement of START, Journal of Public Child Welfare, 9(1), 42-64.
3 Huebner, et al., The impact of START, 196-203.
4 Huebner, R.A., Hall, M.T., Walton, M., Willauer, T., & Posze, L. (2021) The Sobriety Treatment
and Recovery Teams Program for Families with Parental Substance Use: Comparison of Child
5 Welfare Outcomes through 12-months Post-Intervention. In review.
Huebner, et al., The impact of START, 196-203.