NCT07439783

Testing the CrOss Systems Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) Model for Improving Staff Retention Among Child Welfare Workers and Peer Supporters, and Implementation of Evidence Based Interventions.

Staffing and Supports for Implementing Cross-System Interventions With Peer Mentors

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 200 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Alicia Bunger · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to test whether the CrOss System Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) supervision leadership institute can promote workforce stability and improved implementation outcomes within the Ohio START child welfare program. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Among supervisors, caseworkers, and family peer mentors, what is the effect of COSTARS on staff retention and perceptions of the work environment? * What is the effect of COSTARS on service timeliness, implementation fidelity, and parent outcomes within Ohio START? Researchers will compare public children services agencies implementing COSTARS to those implementing supervision practices as usual to see if there are differences between groups in the outcomes described above. Participating supervisors will: * Complete a 6-hour training workshop in the FOCUS model of supervision. * Participate in monthly group coaching sessions with other supervisors, for approximately one year. * Receive individualized feedback from coaches about their supervision performance.

Conditions

• Substance Use Disorder
• Opioid Use Disorder
• Child Maltreatment
• Implementation
• Peer Recovery Supporters

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	COSTARS	CrOss System Technical Assistance for Retaining Staff (COSTARS) is designed to help child welfare supervisors support the case workers and family peer mentors on their teams so that they can deliver programs like Ohio START to families affected by substance use disorder. COSTARS will deliver personalized coaching support to child welfare supervisors by a pair of coaches: one with child welfare expertise and one with lived recovery/child welfare experience. Supervisors will participate in a group training that emphasizes supportive supervision practices, and then receive up to two years of ongoing coaching support that involves monthly calls, and written feedback based on recorded supervision sessions.
OTHER	Implementation As Usual	Implementation as Usual includes training on the model, monthly technical assistance calls focused on model fidelity, regular audits of programmatic data, and monthly group calls with implementers from across the state.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-03-30
• Primary completion: 2030-08-31
• Completion: 2030-08-31
• First posted: 2026-02-27
• Last updated: 2026-02-27