Evaluation of DELTA PREP

Abstract

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been recognized as a public health problem since the late 20th century. To spur IPV prevention efforts nationwide, the DELTA PREP Project selected 19 state domestic violence coalitions to build organizational prevention capacity and catalyze IPV primary prevention strategies within their states. Objective DELTA PREP’s summative evaluation addressed four major questions: (1) Did coalitions improve their prevention capacity during the project period? (2) Did coalitions serve as catalysts for prevention activities within their states during the project period? (3) Was initial prevention capacity associated with the number of prevention activity types initiated by coalitions by the end of the project? (4) Did coalitions sustain their prevention activities 6 months after the end of the project period? Results DELTA PREP achieved its capacity-building goal, with all 19 participant coalitions integrating prevention within their organizations and serving as catalysts for prevention activities in their states. At 6 months follow up, coalitions had sustained almost all prevention activities they initiated during the project. Baseline prevention capacity (Beginner vs. Intermediate) was not associated with the number of prevention activity types coalitions implemented by the end of the project. Conclusion Service and treatment organizations are increasingly asked to integrate a full spectrum of prevention strategies. Selecting organizations that have high levels of general capacity and readiness for an innovation like integrating a public health approach to IPV prevention will likely increase success in building an innovation-specific capacity, and in turn implementing an innovation.

The Data-to-Action Framework

“…Information generated from rapid feedback memos was also used to inform DELTA PREP’s summative and process evaluations (Freire et al, 2015; Zakocs & Freire, 2015). Some examples included revising evaluation questions to reflect new program priorities, gaining conceptual clarity about the desired capacity outcomes, informing the case study protocol, and designing the 6-month postproject interview guides.…”

“…The framework was designed while implementing DELTA PREP (Preparing and Raising Expectations for Prevention), a 3-year project aimed at building the primary prevention capacities of statewide domestic violence (DV) coalitions. The project’s summative and process evaluations are reported elsewhere (Freire, Zakocs, Le, Hill, Brown, & Wheaton, 2015; Schober & Fawcett, 2015; Zakocs & Freire, 2015). …”

The DELTA PREP Initiative

“…Our findings provide a context for DELTA PREP’s summative evaluation, which demonstrated that coalitions built their prevention capacity (i.e., integrated prevention) and in turn served as catalysts for prevention activities within their states during the project (Freire et al, 2015). We found that prevention integration began with basic organizational prevention readiness, where organizational leaders emerged as prevention champions.…”

“…Coalitions also served as catalysts for prevention activities in their states by the end of the project period, measured as initiation or expansion of six types of activities: state-level prevention training, state capacity building, work with media outlets, programs, policies, and media campaigns (Freire et al, 2015). …”

Exploring the rise and diversity of health and societal issues that use a public health approach: A scoping review and narrative synthesis

“…What were the PH approaches targeting/addressing? Of the 19 studies identified as applying a PH approach to reducing violent behaviour, four were aimed at preventing sexual and Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) [28][29][30][31], seven focused on preventing gun [32][33][34][35][36] or knife violence [37,38], and three were aimed at preventing or addressing the causes of youth gang violence, including carrying weapons [39][40][41]. Other studies were aimed at preventing homicides, by focusing on maximising data sharing and examining patterns and factors associated with the circumstances and occurrences of violent deaths [42], and violent crimes, by developing partnerships between police, health and local government to tackle the underlying factors behind the increase in all types of serious crimes [43].…”