Two professors at Sarasota-Manatee College of Arts & Sciences received a grant to support their research project with Family Safety Alliance (FSA). Dr. Melissa Sloan and Dr. Jane Roberts received the grant from the American Sociological Association to study improvement of the local child welfare system. The research will stucy families and children in DeSoto, Sarasota and Manatee County.

Sloan and Roberts’s research will identify gaps, strengths and weaknesses in the system of care for families and children in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties and strengthen community partnerships.

Money from the grant will help purchase software and fund student research assistants.

fund undergraduate student research assistants, provide compensation for study participants and enable the purchase of data analysis software for faculty and student use.