An interagency group of policy makers and practitioners began planning this study in 1998 as part of an effort to improve children and family services for West Virginia. It was the premise of this interagency group that many youth in West Virginia were being under- or over-served by federal, state, local, and private agencies due to the lack of a coordinated, comprehensive planning process that would provide adequate and appropriate resources where they were most needed. This premise was based on: the lack of agreed upon statewide goals for improving service delivery and child well-being, the lack of accountability for reaching programmatic goals, the lack of information about child/family service needs, and the lack of information about the availability and use of child/family services. The study presented here is a significant step toward a coordinated approach to improving juvenile justice and children and family services in West Virginia.

In 2000, the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council commissioned the study. The Governor’s Committee on Crime Delinquency and Correction, Juvenile Justice Subcommittee voted to fund the West Virginia Prevention Resource Center’s proposal with United States Department of Justice, Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant funds in FY 2001 - 2003 and the Juvenile Justice and Deliquency Prevention Block Grant in 2004 & 2005.

The initial report, included under the Reports section of this site, presents the findings of an analysis of state and federal funding streams supporting public services for children and families in West Virginia. The study's purpose is to provide West Virginia citizens, including planners and policy makers, with data to inform planning and policy decisions and better understand the services provided to children and families in the state.

The study focuses on funding streams administered by West Virginia state agencies that provided services to children and families from fiscal year (FY) 1999 through fiscal year 2001. More than 250 funding streams were catalogued into six functional categories including: Education, Health Care, Economic Support, Safety and Family Stability, Economic Development, and Community Capacity Building.

The study includes three types of information: an analysis of spending patterns and trends, program descriptions, and available state grant funding, each of which is available on this site.

The primary source documents used for this study were the West Virginia Single Audit of Federal Programs and the annual Enrolled State Budget Bill passed by the legislature for each of the three years of the initial study.

Funding Study Work Group Meeting Agendas & Notes