Grantee Research Projects

About the Projects

S4A investigators are testing innovative ways of aligning the delivery and financing systems for multiple services, with a focus on the health and economic outcomes that improve health. Research findings will shape future directions in health and social policy while informing clinical and administrative practices used by the professionals that work in these diverse but inter-related sectors.

Aligning Behavioral Health and Child Welfare Systems to Address the Opiate Crisis in Rural Ohio

Children affected by the opioid epidemic need a complex array of services and supports to safeguard their health and wellbeing, including child protective services, legal representation, educational...
Research to Understand Systemic Racism as a Barrier and Engagement with Child Mental Health Services

Building off of the Aligning Delivery and Financing Systems to Prevent Adverse Child Experiences in St. Louis study, Washington University in St. Louis will study the impact of systemic racism on...
Efficacy of Holistic Admissions in Health Sciences Education: A Pipeline Model for Implementation at Community Colleges

This study tests a holistic admissions approach in health sciences education at Salt Lake Community College and its impact on the BIPOC healthcare workforce. Higher education admissions have always...
Aligning Health and Social Systems to Promote Vaccination Access for Populations Experiencing Systemic Barriers

This study assesses effective strategies to eliminate disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccination by race and ethnicity by building on an existing nationwide initiative of the Aging and Disability...
Systems Alignment for Effective Resettlement (SAFER): Engaging Refugee-led Organizations and Empowering Refugee Voices to Advance Equity in Refugee Resettlement

This study will explore opportunities to strengthen a systems alignment approach to the refugee resettlement process in Virginia. This process is overrun with systemic racism as barriers to housing...
Achieving Reach in Youth Behavioral Health and Wellness through Catchment-Area Community Governance

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of the Youth Wellness Hub as a hyper-local community governance model for integrating delivery and financing systems for youth behavioral health and wellness services. The Youth Wellness Hub combines three social policy tools that are separately promising or well-supported in the research literature: community governance; public health education campaigns; and service network coordination through fiscal blending.
Systems Alignment to Optimize Health Services for Youth Experiencing Homelessness

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, tests the feasibility of an integrated system of medical, social and public health programming designed to improve outcomes for youth experiencing homelessness in Hennepin County, Minnesota. The study organizes community-engaged consensus building sessions with stakeholders from medical, social and public health systems and with youth experiencing homelessness in order to co-create strategies for system alignment, including multi-sector data integration, shared clinical practice guidelines, and co-location of health and social services for youth experiencing homelessness.
Can California's CalAIM Medicaid Transformation Initiative Achieve Systems Integration? Identifying Key Facilitators of Cross-Sectoral Coordination for Individuals with Complex Needs or at High Risk

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the effectiveness of California’s CalAIM Medicaid Waiver program in integrating social service and public health organizations into Medicaid coordinated systems of care for individuals with complex health and social needs. CalAIM is designed to dismantle forms of structural racism by investing nearly $2 Billion in helping Medicaid health plans and medical providers forge stronger alliances with local social service organizations and public health agencies in addressing the complex health and social needs of Medicaid beneficiaries, including paying for nonmedical services needed by these beneficiaries.
FAAITH (Faith-leaders Allied and Aligned to Institute Trust in the Home) and HOPE (Healthy Outcomes from Positive Experiences) for Equitable Systems Alignment

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of a modified Church-based home visiting program that aims to align health and social services for households with young children and dismantle forms of structural racism faced by these households. The program to be modified and tested is delivered by Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton New Jersey, a predominantly Black congregation, with the goal of reducing adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and promoting positive childhood experiences within historically marginalized families and communities.
Research to Understand Systems of Housing (RUSH): Feasibility and Acceptability of Aligning Systems for Fathers

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of a multi-sector “Functional Zero” approach to reducing homelessness among fathers in Atlanta, with a focus on Black fathers who are disproportionately represented among homeless populations. The study builds from an existing multi-sector coalition of leaders from medical, social and public health sectors who have formed Fathers Matter ATL to address the unmet health and social needs of homeless fathers, including forms of structural racism that limit the availability of housing options for homeless men with dependent children.