NCJ Number
243880
Date Published
2010
Length
292 pages
Annotation
Findings and methodology are presented for the process and training evaluations of 15 Safe Start Promising Approaches (SSPA) for the first 2 years of implementation of Safe Start community-based initiatives, which are intended to reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence (CEV).
Abstract
The Safe Start sites emphasized training their clinical and administrative staff in recruitment and retention strategies as well as in new treatment approaches. For the training on engaging families in mental health services, improvements in knowledge and reported comfort in using these strategies were maintained at follow-up surveys; however, knowledge retention for the new intervention approaches 3 months later was more difficult. In addition, although general comfort levels in working with CEV started at moderate to high levels pre-training, increases in these comfort levels were not pronounced. It is difficult to compare these findings with other staff training evaluations because items were newly created for each Safe Start training. Significant modification of staff perspectives after one or two trainings is typically difficult. These findings should be considered in the context of low survey retention rates at follow-up, which precluded some analyses of change over time. Data were collected for the process evaluation from a variety of sources, including site visits, quarterly activity reports, document review, and regular e-mail and telephone communications. The training evaluation was designed to assess the impact of training on staff knowledge and attitudes and to help researchers understand how training may have changed practice in working with CEV and their families. Extensive figures and tables and 92 references