Consent for Participation in Research
Title: Right at Home National Initiative
Lead Researcher(s): Dr. David Phillips, Dr. Jim Sullivan, Dr. Robert Collinson, and Dr. Grace Ortuzar
Study funding source: Right at Home National Initiative
Partners for HOME is excited to partner with the University of Notre Dame’s Lab for Economic
Opportunities (LEO) to study the impact of targeted homelessness prevention. This study is part of the
Right at Home National Initiative, which seeks to implement and evaluate homelessness prevention
programs across the country. You are eligible for this study because you are receiving services from a
provider participating in the Right at Home National Initiative. We invite you to join the study and receive
at least $20, with the opportunity to share your contact information to help us improve our social
services.
Purpose of the Study
We hope you will participate in our research study to help us learn how rapid, flexible financial assistance
and tailored support to stop housing loss can affect people’s lives. You will receive at least $20 dollars in
the form of a gift card if you agree to participate in the study and fill out a short survey today. By
participating, you will be one of several thousand people helping us learn how to better serve the
community.
What will you be asked to do?
If you agree to participate in the study, some of your personal information and that of members of your
household may be shared with the research team at the University of Notre Dame. This information may
include names, dates of birth, contact information (such as phone number, email address, or mailing
address), and Social Security or Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (if it’s already available for
your local provider). Your personal information will be safely linked to other state and county systems
such as Homeless Management Information System records, Medicaid records, public benefits use data,
consumer reference data, credit reports (does not count against your credit score), as well as data from
the criminal justice system and the Department of Education. We may also access records of how much
money you earned from state Departments of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, or the Census Bureau
to see how earnings may change over time.
Your individual information will be used for research
purposes only and will not be shared publicly. The research team may access these data until the
conclusion of the study, which will not be longer than 10 years. Afterwards, they will not access data
without seeking out your consent again. This information is necessary to measure outcomes of program
participants and help providers improve their services. You will also be asked to complete a short survey
now.
We may also contact you in the future to participate in follow-up surveys. If you choose to participate in
future follow-up surveys, you will receive an additional gift card of at least $20 to thank you for answering
our questions. If you agree to participate in the study, we may contact you in the future using the phone
number or email you provide (by call, text, or email) to invite you to complete a follow-up survey.
How will the research team keep my information safe?
Your privacy is important to your local provider and the research team. The research team will treat your
data as confidential and protected information, meaning they will store your data securely and will use it
only for the purposes of the study. They will only release results about groups of people in the study, so
they will never reveal information about you individually.
At the end of the study, other researchers may use your data for future research, but this data will not
include any individual information that will be traced back to you. LEO will make every effort to keep
your information safe. Though confidentiality can’t be completely guaranteed, the risk of a breach of
confidentiality is small.
Study participation is voluntary
If you choose not to participate in the study, you will not be asked to answer a survey, and you will not
receive a gift card today. However, you may still access prevention services. Participation in the study will
not limit your access to prevention funds, nor will it change your likelihood of receiving prevention funds.
If you choose to participate in the study today, you can leave the study at a later date. Please consider that
participating in the study could lead to more prevention programs being funded to help more people in
the future.
The opportunity to receive prevention funds is randomly assigned as part of the Right at Home initiative.
Those eligible for prevention funds will be randomly assigned, like the flip of a coin, to either receive
prevention funds or not receive prevention funds. Whether you participate in the study will not affect
your chance of receiving assistance.
Additional disclosures
Jim Sullivan is both a lead researcher on the study and a volunteer member of the board at Destination:
Home, which started the targeted homelessness prevention program being studied.
I have more questions. Whom do I ask?
If you have any questions about prevention services, you can contact your case manager. You can also
contact the research team by emailing atlanta-right-at-home@nd.edu. If you have any questions about
your rights as a person in this study, you may talk to Notre Dame’s Office of Research Compliance at
(574)-631-7432 or compliance@nd.edu.