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Tools for Evaluating Prevention Programs
All programs should strive to incorporate evaluation activities into their ongoing efforts to reduce child abuse and neglect and improve the well-being of children, youth, and families. However, it is important to choose evaluation strategies that are best suited to measure the program's intended outcomes based on factors such as program design and characteristics of the families and communities they serve. Use the following resources to identify evaluation tools and strategies for measuring the success of child abuse prevention programs, including State and local examples.
Evaluation Toolkit and Logic Model Builder
FRIENDS National Resource Center and Child Welfare Information Gateway
Supplies tools for child abuse and neglect prevention, family support, and parenting programs to evaluate their effectiveness in improving outcomes for children and families.
CBCAP Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART)
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP)
Presents questions and answers about PART and its role in assessing and improving the performance of all programs receiving Federal assistance, including its impact on CBCAP programs.
FRIENDS Outcome Accountability Guide
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention
Examines the role of logic models in outcome accountability, describes the evaluation process, and suggests tools for measuring progress.
Evaluating Community Programs and Initiatives
University of Kansas Community Tool Box
Provides a framework for program evaluation and community intervention research, discusses the importance of stakeholder involvement, and considers strategies to use evaluation results to improve programs.
Evaluating the Process and Monitoring Outcomes
Promising Practices Network
Discusses the importance of data collection for providing feedback on programs, how to define key outcomes, and general information on conducting both process and outcome evaluations.
Evaluation for Improvement: A Seven Step Empowerment Evaluation Approach for Violence Prevention Organizations (PDF - 2929 KB)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (2009)
Discusses seven steps violence prevention organizations can take to hire an empowerment evaluator to help them build their evaluation capacity through learn-by-doing processes.
Healthy Families America Self-Assessment Tool 2007 (PDF - 411 KB)
Prevent Child Abuse America (2007)
Evaluates programs based on best practice standards that define the Healthy Families model on 12 critical elements as well as governance and administration. The tool also identifies policies, procedures, and practices necessary to implement the program.
Implementation Research
Bhattacharyya, Reeves, & Zwarenstein
Research on Social Work Practice, 19(5), 2009
View Abstract
Presents a collection of articles describing efforts to implement and evaluate evidence-based practices in a variety of settings.
Implementing the Promoting the Healthy Development Survey (PHDS)
Commonwealth Fund (2006)
Offers comprehensive guidelines for State officials, physician practices, and health systems on how to implement a parent survey to assess and improve the quality of preventive and developmental care provided to young children.
Indicators for Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs (PDF - 513 KB)
Ross & Vandivere (2009)
Recommends that evaluations of child maltreatment prevention programs use a combination of indicators that measure risk and protective factors in several areas: parenting capacity, substance use, financial solvency, family conflict, child well-being, and home and community.
Pathway to the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (PDF - 3440 KB)
Pathways Mapping Initiative (2007)
Describes a comprehensive set of actions that policymakers, service providers, and community organizations can take to improve the lives of children and families.
Peer Review in CBCAP: A Source Document for Assessment and Best Practice
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (2011)
Presents a snapshot of current peer review practices across the States, breaks down the peer review process into manageable steps, and provides an assessment tool to assist in that process.
Suggestions for Evaluating Parent Education Programs
Rader & Cooke (2005)
Provides a starting point for parent education program staff to consider evaluation in terms of how it can improve their current programming as well as demonstrate outcomes to decision-makers.
Using Qualitative Data in Program Evaluation: Telling the Story of a Prevention Program (PDF - 470 KB)
FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (2009)
Helps program administrators, managers, direct service practitioners, and others use qualitative evaluation techniques to better understand results found in quantitative data.
State and local examples
Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: What Is It and How Do We Know When It Works? (PDF - 563 KB)
Wisconsin Children's Trust Fund & Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (2010)
Reviews program evaluation approaches used to evaluate prevention efforts and findings from experimental and quasi-experimental studies. The brief also discusses the challenges of measuring prevention and emphasizes the need for continuing evaluation research.
Evaluating Multiple Prevention Programs: Methods, Results, and Lessons Learned
Adler-Baeder, Kerpelman, Griffin, & Schramm
Journal of Extension, 48(6), 2010
Describes a method to document program impact, share results, and provide lessons learned when assessing outcomes across multiple, distinct prevention programs.
Evaluating the Work of Parent Aides
Exchange Center of North Carolina (2004)
Describes research to evaluate the effectiveness of parent aides in preventing the recurrence of child abuse and neglect and to identify predictors of success in parent aide services.
Evidence-Based Practice and Logic Models (PDF - 345 KB)
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (2010)
Explains the decision to develop an efficiency measure that examines dollars and services on a continuum of evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and practices, as well as explains the use and components of the logic model developed by the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention.