Since there has been little research in the area of children in long-term foster care, it is not clear how these children differ from those who successfuly move out of care. A study was undertaken to discover which factors account for the phenomenon of long-term foster care. Four organizations were involved: (1) private social services agency (research group); (2) State Department of Children and Youth Services (study population); (3) a university school of social work (project co-leadership); and (4) the state chapter of a national organization of volunteers (subject interviews). To involve policymakers in this project, the evaluators scheduled meetings with administrators of regional offices to receive their ideas, suggestions, and commitment that findings would be used in their policy decision-making. To involve state social workers in the projects, evaluators met the social workers face-to-face in friendly meetings, made the social workers' role an active rather than a passive one, solicited interview items of personal significance, attempted to instill curiosity about results, stressed previous successful projects completed together, and read a project endorsement statement from the social workers' central office. These efforts resulted in a project in which the workers, on the whole, were cooperative and gave thoughtful responses to the questions. (NB)