Paula Lantz to Lecture on Social Impact Bonds to Spread Social Service and Mental Health Interventions

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Paula Lantz

Paula Lantz, associate dean for Academic Affairs and professor of Public Policy at the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy, will visit the University of Arkansas on Friday, Nov. 3 to give a talk titled "Social Impact Bonds as a Strategy for Spreading Social Service and Mental Health Interventions." 

The talk will take place from 3:30-5 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main and is part of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Psychological Science's Graduate Professional Education (GPE) colloquium series. 

Lantz is a leading scholar in health policy and will be speaking about "Social Impact Bonds as a Strategy for Spreading Social Service and Mental Health Interventions," a topic that is highly relevant to the mission of our department and our current GPE grant in particular.

With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Policies for Action initiative, Lantz is investigating the potential of social impact bonds — or Pay for Success financing — in spreading the implementation of evidence-based prevention programs that provide value to the public sector.

In a Pay for Success contract, private investors put up the capital to fund an intervention; and if a third-party evaluation demonstrates that pre-determined metrics of success were achieved, the public sector will pay back the investors, sometimes including a rate of return.

Lantz will discuss the first Pay For Success projects launched in the United States, and what she and her colleagues have learned regarding the potential and challenges of this model. She will also discuss the criteria for what makes a good Pay for Success intervention, with a focus on social service and mental health interventions.