Community and Team Member Factors that Influence the Operations Phase of Local Prevention Teams: The PROSPER Project

Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal predictors of quality of functioning of community prevention teams during the "operations" phase of team development. The 14 community teams were involved in a randomized-trial of a university-community partnership project, PROSPER, that implements evidence-based interventions intended to support positive youth development and reduce early substance use, as well as other problem behaviors. The study included a multi-informant approach to measurement of constructs, and included data from 137 team members, 59 human service agency directors and school administrators, 16 school principals, and 8 Prevention Coordinators (i.e. technical assistance providers). We examined how community demographics and social capital, team level characteristics, and team member attributes and attitudes are related to local team functioning across an 18-month period. Findings indicate that community demographics (poverty), social capital, team member attitudes towards prevention, and team members' views of the acceptability of teen alcohol use played a substantial role in predicting various indicators of the quality of team functioning 18 months later.

Factors That Predict Financial Sustainability of Community Coalitions: Five Years of Findings from the PROSPER Partnership Project

“…Wave 1 pretest findings are reported elsewhere (e.g., Feinberg et al, 2007; Greenberg et al, 2007). Team data at organizational and operations phases (Waves 2 and 3) were collected 6 and 18 months after team formation, when team operations and program implementation were fully supported by university funds.…”

“…We found that that greater community level poverty was negatively related to early team functioning (as measured by Global Team Functioning – see methods) and that greater perceived community readiness and positive team member prevention attitudes positively predicted the quality of team functioning 6 and 18 months after PROSPER began (Feinberg et al, 2007a; Greenberg, Feinberg, Meyer, Spoth, & Redmond, 2007). …”

“…The PROSPER model has four developmental phases. The first organizational phase lasts between six and eight months and involves partnership formation activities, including recruiting key members, receiving training in the model, establishing program goals based on local needs and resources, and coalescing as a team (Feinberg et al, 2007a). During the second, operations phase, which lasts between two and three years, the major tasks involve implementing chosen programs, applying a monitoring system to ensure implementation quality, and initiating sustainability training and planning.…”

“…It often involves engaging other community entities to create a permanent structure for the team’s operations and sponsored activities (Feinberg, et al, 2007; Spoth & Greenberg, 2005). During the early sustainability phase, proactive TA places a greater focus on planning for sustainability and gaining local funding support.…”

Evaluating the implementation and sustainability of an evidence-based intervention: delivering Triple P within Indigenous child welfare agencies

“…Aarons, 2004). These scales were selected because they measure important influences on continued program use identified in the literature as described in the introduction (Hodge & Tuners, 2015), include key inner context factors measured at the practitioner (program) and team (organization) level (to match the theory), and have adequate to good internal consistency (Aarons, 2004;Feinberg, Chilenski, Greenberg, Spoth, & Redmond, 2007). They were originally developed to measure coalition functioning, and program appeal and requirement, respectively, as supports that influence EBP implementation and this study checks how they hang together when measuring continued implementation.…”