James Bell Associates, Inc. honored with Outstanding Contractor Award from the Administration for Children and Families

Arlington, Va. – James Bell Associates, Inc. (www.jbassoc.com), a program evaluation, applied research and policy analysis firm serving federal, state and non-profit agencies, was awarded the 2005 Outstanding Contractor Award from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The ACF is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The award recognizes the contributions James Bell Associates, Inc. (JBA) made for improving the ability of federal grantees to evaluate program outcomes, for expanding the Children’s Bureau’s capacity to measure the effectiveness of funded programs, and for disseminating information on research-based practice nationwide. Specific projects include: Technical Assistance for and Evaluations of Title IV-E Child Welfare Waiver Demonstration Projects; Evaluation Technical Assistance for Children’s Bureau Discretionary Grants; Evaluation Technical Assistance and Cross-Site Evaluation of the Early Head Start-Child Welfare Services Projects; and Evaluation of the Quality Improvement Centers.

The award was handed out by ACF Assistant Secretary Dr. Wade Horn during the ACF Assistant Secretary’s Honor Awards Ceremony. Accepting the award for James Bell Associates was Dr. James DeSantis, Director in the firm’s child welfare practice area. Ms. Elyse Kaye, Executive Vice President who started up and heads the child welfare practice at JBA, said, “Receiving this award is a great honor for us. We worked diligently in order to improve the quality of research and the utility of evaluation findings to local, state and federal programs. Ultimately, we hope our efforts will lead to improved programs and services for children and their families.”

The entire JBA team worked to create effective, innovative approaches for evaluating ACF programs. Team members working with Ms. Kaye and Dr. DeSantis on the various child welfare projects for ACF included Guy DeWeever, Julia Filene, Elliott Graham, Carol Hafford, Erica Lindquist, Kathy Miller and Bonita Parker.

About James Bell Associates
For more than 25 years, James Bell Associates, Inc. has designed and conducted evaluations in several policy areas for state, federal and non-profit agencies. With extensive background in public health, child and family services, biomedical research labor and employment, social safety nets, and non-profit organizational capacity building, James Bell Associates brings substantial knowledge of innovative federal and state social programs, as well as strong experience with the range of quantitative and qualitative applied research methods needed for successful program evaluations. More information is available at www.jbassoc.com.