ASBTDC client Children and Family Evaluation Services, LLC recently won a $49,712 AFWERX Small Business Technology Transfer award to demonstrate feasibility of its Family Map Inventory.
FMI is a proven assessment that will be used to ascertain and mitigate risk factors for Air Force families.
This Phase I award will allow CAFES to assist existing service programs in providing the most appropriate resources to Air Force families in need, thereby enhancing family resiliency and improving service members’ abilities to more confidently perform their duties.
The CAFES Project Team
Alecia Hamilton, MA, co-founder and leader of CAFES, will serve as the principal investigator for the project. She has an extensive academic background in psychology, which will aid in her work on the project’s research and her supervision of its execution.
Hamilton also has 25 years of experience in the public and private healthcare sectors, combined with 15 years of experience selling services. Additionally, she has developed a career in medical education and research, serving for more than 10 years in the UAMS Department of Family Medicine, where she holds a position in early childhood research.
Founder Leanne Whiteside Mansell, EdD, works alongside Hamilton as the primary advisor for the technical aspects of the CAFES project’s research and development. She will also lead project evaluation. Dr. Mansell has over 25 years of academic research experience that has helped her in developing other parenting and child-development projects, and she has served as an experienced evaluator for multiple funded studies.
Also assisting on the CAFES project is research associate Kelsey Thomas, LMSW, who will offer support via large-scale literature reviews for preparing content and project structures. Thomas has four years of content development experience focused on early childhood systems, paired with a background in mental health service delivery.
ASBTDC Assistance
The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center’s innovation specialist Rebecca Todd aided CAFES in its pursuit of SBIR/STTR funding through AFWERX.
“We would not have even known to apply for the AFWERX SBIR/STTR if it weren’t for Rebecca Todd!” Hamilton shared. “Rebecca has been key in helping us find and connect to SBIR/STTR funding matched to our areas of interest. We had not previously considered the Air Force as a potential client, but their open topic program gave us an opportunity to pitch our idea of using our innovation within the Air Force.”
Market Need
The Family Map Inventory is already in use by multiple non-defense organizations. “From 2019 to 2020 alone, over 11,382 assessments were conducted. However, this assessment tool is primarily used by early childhood education or child service agencies,” Hamilton said.
CAFES has sought out opportunities to extend the reach of the FMI’s benefits to another sector with great need: the military.
Dr. Mansell added, “Other assessments and programs are already in place to ascertain the risk factors among Air Force families. In fact, the Air Force Family Advocacy program is on par with the current FMI numbers, screening over 11,000 parents annually to prevent child maltreatment.”
CAFES proposes that introducing the FMI assessment in Airmen family support programs will yield substantial results relative to family functioning and well-being, and therefore, allow programs to offer more personalized solutions.
“It will also create an opportunity to consider not only mothers, but fathers as well, widening the scope of the research on this important aspect of family life,” said Thomas.
CAFES’ Solution: the Family Map Inventory
“The Family Map Inventory is used to build strengths and resiliency in order for children to grow up in an environment that gives them the best chance to succeed in life,” Hamilton shared. “Strong, resilient families improve duty performance and mission readiness. This project will determine the utility of the Family Map Inventory, a research-proven assessment, in various Air Force programs that seek to improve resilience, reduce ecological risk factors among military families, and recognize family strengths. The Family Map offers an efficient means to assess critical domains of family and parenting life so that service programs can quickly and precisely connect families to the many resources and interventions available to Air Force families.”
The three key objectives for this AFWERX STTR Phase I project are to:
- Assess indicators of adoption within various Air Force programs by getting stakeholder feedback.
- Complete a review of current military social science literature to determine items that should be added to assess important factors within each domain of the FMI.
- Pilot test or demonstrate the FMI with any interested program within the Air Force in order to develop specifications for Phase II research work.
“Our goal in this project is to study and test adjustments to the successful FMI to meet the needs of primary and secondary prevention programs within the Air Force,” Hamilton said. “The research base of the FMI is solidly built on family and child development research and has proven success. We propose to adapt and modify the language and constructs of the FMI to be specific for unique factors present in military life.”
Advice for New AFWERX SBIR/STTR Applicants
“Think big!” Hamilton encouraged. “The Department of Defense needs a wide range of innovations to meet all of its operational needs. A lot of businesses think that the DoD is only interested in developing planes or missiles, but they are looking for all kinds of solutions to improve human performance and systems as well as hardware for warfighting.”
She also urged applicants to ensure they are informed of the requirements for their specific application.
“Each agency’s SBIR/STTR application, rules, and processes are different. Be prepared to learn what the Air Force is seeking with their SBIR/STTR programs.”
What’s Next for CAFES?
“We intend to apply for an AFWERX Phase II STTR award if we can identify an Air Force customer to partner with us in an implementation study,” Hamilton said. “We also have an SBIR application pending review with the NIH and expect a determination in the fall. We continue to distribute the FMI nationwide and study improvements in reporting and function to meet our customers’ needs.”
Based on the success of the Phase I project, the CAFES team is also looking to extend their reach further within other service branches.
Hamilton explained, “Our award is an STTR which allows us to take a proven commercial product and discover potential adaptations for military use. Proving a successful product within the Air Force will allow us to pursue other branches of the military as clients.”