We often talk about the great work being done for the children of Battambang, and now we finally have the data to back it up. This month, CFI supporter Nikki Bernabe (MSW Candidate, U. Denver), shared the findings of her evaluation of Children’s Future’s social work program.

The impact evaluation analyzed a sample of Children’s Future students over an 8 month period, to measure the effect that social work interventions had on Child Status Index (CSI) scores for students in CFI’s programs.

The CSI is an evidence-based framework, developed by the USAID, that measures the 6 critical domains of child well-being: nutrition, health, shelter and care, child protection, psychosocial and behavioural health, and education. Children’s Future uses these indices to assess the general well-being of a given child, identify areas of need, and direct students to the necessary programs.

Bernabe’s analysis of social work case reports from students in three categories–low-risk, high-risk, and reduced-risk–showed a positive correlation between Children’s Future’s programming and students’ improved CSI scores. In the author’s words, the evaluation “the success of CFI’s social work program in improving CSI scores and child protection can contribute to the narrative that children living in poverty require direct social work intervention just as much as provision of physical needs and economic opportunity.”