Assessing an Adapted Approach to Communities That Care for Child Maltreatment Prevention

Abstract

Objective: Communities That Care (CTC) is an evidence-based community mobilization model designed to prevent problematic adolescent behaviors such as delinquency and substance use by organizing community coalitions that choose and implement evidence-based practices to address community-specific risk and protective factors. This paper presents findings from the evaluation of Keeping Families Together (KFT), an adapted CTC approach that uses the community mobilization model to target community-wide prevention of child maltreatment in families with children aged 0 to 10, 3.5 years into implementation. Method: The findings from the 2 communities implementing the adapted KFT approach are compared with those from 12 communities that implemented the traditional CTC model as part of a site-randomized controlled trial. Data collected approximately 3.5 years into each approach's implementation are analyzed to determine whether this adapted approach has resulted in similar implementation quality as well as satisfactory board functioning and community transformation (key indicators of successful CTC implementation and predictors of outcome achievement that have been identified in previous CTC studies) as original CTC. In addition, we assess whether perceived program sustainability is similar between adapted and traditional CTC sites at similar time points. Results: Statistical testing revealed that, at 3.5 years into implementation, board functioning, communities' adoption of a science-based approach to prevention, and sustainability in the adapted KFT approach were equal or superior to traditional CTC sites. Conclusions: As an adaptation of the evidence-based CTC community mobilization approach, KFT offers the potential of a promising extension of CTC to the prevention of child maltreatment.

Evaluation of community-based health promotion interventions in children and adolescents in high-income countries: a scoping review on strategies and methods used

“… Prevention of child maltreatment; Well-being SALAZAR ET AL. [ 76 ] 2019 USA Interventional b) Process evaluation b) Quasi-experimental n.o. Prevention of child maltreatment; Well-being SEIRAWAN ET AL.…”

Changed for the Better: The Modifiable Maltreatment Factors Framework

“…While there are valuable evidence-supported interventions that focus on community change, such as Keeping Families Together and Communities that Care [37,38], these programs are based on an individual and psychosocial understanding of child maltreatment that is addressed by evidence-based therapeutic programs, increasing social support, and other similar services. Neither approach centers power and authority for change within the community, nor do they advocate for systemic change.…”

Understanding and changing community attitudes towards vulnerable families: A review of literature and practice

“…As noted previously, eight of the included articles described or evaluated an intervention designed to increase community support for vulnerable families. The most common of which were the Strong Communities initiative (Hashima et al, 2008;Haski-Leventhal et al, 2008;Kimbrough-Melton & Melton, 2015;McLeigh, Katz, Davidson-Arad, & Ben-Arieh, 2017;McLeigh et al, 2015) and Keeping Families Together, adapted from Communities that Care (Salazar et al, 2016;Salazar et al, 2019). One article provided an overview of five different programs, three of which target community social norms (rather than parenting practices) (Daro & Dodge, 2009).…”

“…Keeping Families Together (adapted from Communities that Care). Two articles led by Salazar (2019;2016) evaluated community participation in the Keeping Families Together (KFT) program, compared to its parent program, Communities that Care (CTC). CTC is a community coalition approach to promoting community health and avoiding behavioral, mental, and emotional problems based on the premise that adolescent problem behaviours can be prevented through community level interventions (Salazar et al, 2016).…”

“…The authors found that CTC could be successfully applied to prevent child abuse and promote child wellbeing across the community. One year and three and a half years into implementation, the KFT sites reported that the process was easier to implement compared to CTC sites (Salazar et al, 2019). The authors conclude that "as an adaptation of the evidencebased CTC community mobilization approach, KFT is a promising extension of CTC to the prevention of child maltreatment" (Salazar et al, 2019, p. 366).…”