Using Action Planning to Build Organizational Capacity for the Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence

Zakocs²,

et al. 2015

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.

Section: Data Sources and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of DELTA PREP

Zakocs²,

et al. 2015

“…Develop an action plan that leverages existing resources. Per the project's design, coalitions engaged in an action planning process (see Schober & Fawcett, 2015). Coalitions embraced a "don't start from scratch" mind-set when developing their action plans.…”

Section: Aim 1: How Did Coalitions Begin To Integrate Prevention Intomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Integration. The DELTA PREP action planning tools-guidebook, templates, inventory list, and the CPCA 1 -provided a process for the prevention team to brainstorm concrete steps for their coalition to integrate prevention (see Schober & Fawcett, 2015). Reviewing the CPCA provided an opportunity for coalitions to dialogue about their current prevention capacity and to identify focus areas for action planning.…”

Section: Action Planning Resources Offered a Process To Begin Preventionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The DELTA PREP Initiative

Zakocs¹,

2015

Background The DELTA PREP Project aimed to build the prevention capacity of 19 state domestic violence coalitions by offering eight supports designed to promote prevention integration over a 3-year period: modest grant awards, training events, technical assistance, action planning, coaching hubs, the Coalition Prevention Capacity Assessment, an online workstation, and the online documentation support system. Objectives Using quantitative and qualitative data, we sought to explain how coalitions integrated prevention within their structures and functions and document how DELTA PREP supports contributed to coalitions’ integration process. Results We found that coalitions followed a common pathway to integrate prevention. First, coalitions exhibited precursors of organizational readiness, especially having prevention champions. Second, coalitions engaged in five critical actions: engaging in dialogue, learning about prevention, forming teams, soliciting input from the coalition, and action planning. Last, by engaging in these critical actions, coalitions enhanced two key organizational readiness factors—developing a common understanding of prevention and an organizational commitment to prevention. We also found that DELTA PREP supports contributed to coalitions’ abilities to integrate prevention by supporting learning about prevention, fostering a prevention team, and engaging in action planning by leveraging existing opportunities. Two DELTA PREP supports—coaching hubs and the workstation—did not work as initially intended. From the DELTA PREP experience, we offer several lessons to consider when designing future prevention capacity-building initiatives.

“…Freire et al (2015) describe the project's theory of change and evaluate the extent to which the coalitions' were successful in improving their prevention capacity as well as catalyzing and sustaining prevention efforts. Schober and Fawcett (2015) describe how all 19 coalitions developed and implemented action plans and tracked their organizational changes over time. This article points to the project's focus on using data to inform coalitions' planned changes and moving to action through organizational change.…”

Section: Health Education and Behavior 42(4)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Delta Prep

Mercy

2015

We are social animals, and the quality of our relationships with each other lies at the heart of our health and well-being. The relationships we have with our spouses and domestic partners are perhaps among the most central in shaping our lives. Violence with our partners, of course, severely undermines and, in many cases, can destroy these relationships so important to our health and well-being. Unfortunately, intimate partner violence (IPV) is all too common. In 2011, over 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 of men had experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner sometime in their lifetime (Breiding et al., 2014). In addition, almost 1 in 10 women and 1 in 200 men had been raped by an intimate partner in their lifetime. These statistics, however, only tell part of the problem. The women, men, and children exposed to IPV are vulnerable to a broad range of public health problems and risk behaviors including, for example, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, sexually transmitted infections (including HIV), chronic pain, gastrointestinal disorders, cardiovascular disease, stroke, smoking, binge drinking, and HIV risk factors (Breiding, Black, & Ryan, 2008). Because of its prevalence and many health impacts, IPV must be considered an urgent public health problem deserving the same level of attention and investment we give to problems of similar magnitude and impact.Given the urgency of addressing IPV and an associated increase in the demand for evidence-based IPV prevention innovations, building an infrastructure that can more effectively move innovations from research to action is increasingly important. This infrastructure requires attention to the capacity of state and local organizations to be successful in scaling up effective programs with fidelity (Flaspohler, Meehan, Maras, & Keller, 2012; Wandersman et al., 2008). It also requires a reach beyond traditional health agencies to partners with deep experience and expertise in IPV and social action. The four articles in this focus section describe the DELTA PREP Project, an initiative to build infrastructure to support IPV prevention and accelerate prevention efforts within 19 states through state domestic violence coalitions. The project (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) was initiated through a partnership between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention, state domestic violence coalitions, the CDC Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which provided funding for the project.As the four articles describe, local agencies emerged around the United States in the 1970s to provide services for IPV victims. These local agencies and associated local movements eventually developed into state domestic violence coalitions, which brought greater visibility to the Violence Against Women Movement (http://www.nnedv. org/policy/issues/vawa.html) and intimate partner and sexual violence in particular. With the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994 (Laney, 2010), the U.S. Congress appropria...