When a family starts to dissolve it frequently comes to the attention of the court or the welfare department and what happens once its members enter the system can be of critical importance. While the number of adults incarcerated is expected to increase slightly, the alarming fact is that if we continue to confine juveniles at the same rate an increase of 70% between 1965 and 1975 can be expected. These data suggest that we should investigate alternatives to detention, not only because of the increasing pressures of space available but, more importantly, because juvenile detention has shown itself to be very expensive and ineffective.

The Community Attention Home, The Dalles, Oregon, provides services to those children, who, due to dependency, delinquent behavior, or family disruption, cannot remain within their present environment. The Home provides short-term shelter care with staff emphasis on proper diagnostic assessment for subsequent placement. Placement of children in the Home provides social service agencies time to plan for further care and/or treatment. The project presents itself in essentially four major areas. They are: a descriptive presentation of data already available at the Home; a determination of what additional data needs to be gathered for further evaluation of the Home’s effectiveness; development of a system for collecting such data as are considered necessary for a further evaluation; and, a description of the statistical methods for the analysis of these data. The information gathered and evaluated as a result of this study will be used by Attention Home staff for both program evaluation and development. This is the third in a series of studies which the Community Attention Home has sponsored for such evaluative and developmental purposes.

Prior to the opening of the Attention Home in August of 1971, a survey was conducted by David Clitheroe and Garrett Long to determine what specific attitudes local groups in the community had about the Attention Home. Their study represented the first part of a two part study. It established the baseline data on the community attitudes toward the Attention Home prior to the opening of the home. These attitudes will be compared with the attitudes after one year’s operation of the home in order to assess what attitudinal changes, if any, have taken place between the first and second surveys.