Robin Tepper Jacob

As evaluation partners for Project AWARE—a Michigan Department of Education-Michigan Department of Health and Human Services initiative on youth mental health—YPL examined a variety of efforts by state and local agency partners to better support students’ healthy development.  Youth Policy Lab worked with the Project AWARE team to design and implement a multifaceted assessment of the five-year initiative’s success in increasing mental health awareness, strengthening interagency collaboration, and streamlining service coordination in three participating communities across the state.

The Youth Policy Lab launched a three-year evaluation during the 2022-23 school year in a large urban school district, focusing on the implementation and effectiveness of the TRAILS Early Intervention program (TRAILS-EI). This Tier 2 school-based program is designed to enhance social and behavioral outcomes in students affected by mental health concerns by increasing the delivery of evidence-based practices, ultimately aiming to improve academic performance. TRAILS-EI seeks to raise awareness and understanding of mental health, improve the accurate and timely identification of students with me...

Youth Policy Lab has been engaged by TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students), an evidence-based, school-delivered student health and wellness program, to explore and evaluate variation in implementation of its Tier 1 (Social and Emotional Learning Curriculum) and Tier 2 (Early Intervention) programming across participating schools in Michigan. Insights from this analysis will be used to inform and improve program delivery. YPL will utilize survey, administrative, and publicly available data to explore variation in implementation outcomes in Michigan schools,...