Rural North Dakota's oil boom and its impact on social services.

Over the last five years, North Dakota has experienced an oil boom based on high oil prices and hydraulic fracturing technologies. This has brought economic expansion and population growth to rural communities that had previously experienced decades of depopulation and economic struggle. Although the state has enjoyed many benefits--especially in juxtaposition to a sluggish national economy--the boom has also meant the arrival of economic refugees and dramatic impacts on largely rural social service systems. In the midst of a rapidly changing situation, available information tends to swing between euphoria over economic success and hysteria about rising crime and shifting cultures. In response, the authors used a primary focus group with county social service directors from across the state and a followup focus group with social workers operating on the edge of oil activity. Grounded in resilience theory, qualitative analysis of the primary focus group, and triangulation of data from other sources, this study provides a more objective report of the housing and social challenges, the benefits of the boom, and the challenges to solutions.

An evaluation of child welfare design teams in four states.

Empowerment-oriented design teams were structured in four states to promote collaborative practices among professionals and former clients. These teams were structured to serve as both learning and training systems, and they identified competencies for collaborative practices. Because these design teams represent a new learning and improvement system for child welfare and related service systems, and because these systems need more effective approaches to learning, training, and improvement, outcomes-oriented evaluations are imperative. The outcomes evaluation reported here relied on two evaluation strategies. First, 48 design team members completed follow-up surveys; these surveys explored individuals' perceptions of their design team involvement. Second, 22 design team members were interviewed directly; they were asked questions about the benefits and accomplishments resulting from their design team experience. These data from both evaluation strategies indicate that design teams promoted family-centered practice and interprofessional collaboration; enhanced service delivery and an understanding of co-occurring needs; and fostered personal growth and self-awareness among participants. These commonalties and similarities were surprising and interesting because design teams in the four states proceeded differently. These findings are discussed in relation to emergent theory on collaborative learning processes and products.