Childrens' Services Division of the State of Oregon is involved in a group home project. They have to date nine group homes in operation within Multnomah County. Their staff consists of a director, three social workers and the group home provider staff. The primary goal for this practicum was the development of an evaluative system that would establish descriptions of the type of client who entered the Group Home Program and some criteria for success in that program. In developing this system, it was necessary to design instruments to measure behavioral changes and attitudes and also to collect descriptive data. Such a system should be as comprehensive as possible while remaining fairly simple and easy to implement. A secondary goal was to pre-test the evaluative system and gather data for the use of the Group Home Project. The instruments could be used continuously in an on-going evaluative process with pre-test data as a standard by which to set more definite objectives and evaluation of the program. Finally the information gathered could be valuable for the 1975 Legislative review.

The purposes of this study were: (1) to examine a select sample of both runaways and nonrunaways at six Oregon residential treatment facilities; (2) to determine the amount and type of preplacement visitation and counseling done within these agencies; (3) to determine the effect preplacement visitation and counseling has upon the studied sample of runaways and nonrunaways in decreasing or controlling the number of runs from the agencies involved; and (4) to determine significant characteristics between runaway and nonrunaway populations. Testing materials included a two-part questionnaire, part of which was developed with girls from one of the participating agencies. Running, which today is looked upon as a status offense, is costly in the effect it has upon the mind and emotions of the young runners, as well as the effect it has upon the budgets of the agencies involved. Running from a residential treatment program is also disruptive to the treatment plan which has been set up for that particular youth. The work which has been done to date in this area is sketchy and incomplete. It does not clearly tell us whether or not preplacement counseling actually reduces the desire to run and helps to create a more comfortable atmosphere for the teen-ager. Our sample consisted of both runners and a random sample of nonrunners from the participating agencies for the month of October.