Research and Evaluation

The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (GUCCHD) partners with government, academic and community organizations to implement applied research and rigorous program evaluation.

Using a community-based, participatory approach, we engage public and private sector stakeholders in designing, implementing, and evaluating the impact of innovations and evidence-based practices. Our approach relies on mixed-methods designs to ensure findings are interpreted within a cultural and contextual framework.

Our work is centered on children, youth, adults, and their families especially: pregnant, postpartum people and families with very young children; individuals with developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs; adolescents and youth in transitional life moments; and communities at large. The interventions we implement and support seek to mitigate the impacts of adversity, promote resilience, and reduce disparities in access and outcomes across the globe. We work nationally and internationally with a special focus on supporting services and systems in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Our work mobilizes data to advance sustainable policy and practice changes to improve the quality of life for impacted communities.

The Center’s ongoing community and clinical services, workforce development, and technical assistance initiatives provide ongoing partners for our research and evaluation projects.

GUCCHD also leads the research and evaluation efforts for the Health Justice Alliance, a medical-legal partnership between the Georgetown University's Law and Medical Centers.

For more information about our research and evaluation capacity contact us at: gucchd@georgetown.edu

 

Selected Activities

Early Childhood
Developmental Disabilities
Gender and Health
  • The Passages Project is a USAID-funded implementation research that addresses the root of chronic challenges in family planning and reproductive health by shifting social norms. Led by the Institute for Reproductive Health at GUCCHD, Passages is a consortium implementation research project that aims to address a broad range of social norms, at scale, to achieve sustained improvements in family planning and reproductive health.
  • The Institute for Reproductive Health at GUCCHD is working with partners on the Templeton Foundation-funded Masculinities, Faith and Peace Project in Nigeria. This project aims to reduce gender-based violence, improve healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies, and improve inter-religious relationships by addressing social norms that shape inequitable gender relations and prevent the use of modern methods of family planning, in mixed Christian and Muslim communities in Plateau State, Nigeria.
Behavioral Health
  • DC Social Emotional and Early Development (SEED) Project
    A four year Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) System of Care Expansion and Sustainability Cooperative Agreement was awarded to the DC Department of Behavioral Health in 2016 to address the needs of young children (birth-6) who were at-risk for or diagnosed with serious emotional disturbance (SED). GUCCHD led a mixed methods evaluation to support the project's. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the community-based clinical teams shifted to delivering early childhood mental health treatment services via telehealth. The evaluation team helped document these innovations in a published paper.
Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development is a designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities.