Journal Article

Sustaining the Utilization and High Quality Implementation of Tested and Effective Prevention Programs Using the Communities That Care Prevention System

Fagan, Abigail A., David Hawkins, J., Hanson, Koren, Briney, John S.

2012

Overview

This paper describes the extent to which communities implementing the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system adopt, replicate with fidelity, and sustain programs shown to be effective in reducing adolescent drug use, delinquency, and other problem behaviors. Data were collected from directors of community-based agencies and coalitions, school principals, service providers, and teachers, all of whom participated in a randomized, controlled evaluation of CTC in 24 communities. The results indicated significantly increased use and sustainability of tested, effective prevention programs in the 12 CTC intervention communities compared to the 12 control communities, during the active phase of the research project when training, technical assistance, and funding were provided to intervention sites, and 2 years following provision of such resources. At both time points, intervention communities also delivered prevention services to a significantly greater number of children and parents. The quality of implementation was high in both conditions, with only one significant difference: CTC sites were significantly more likely than control sites to monitor the quality of implementation during the sustainability phase of the project.

• Publisher: Springer US,Blackwell Science Ltd
• Subject: Adolescents / Adoption / Behavior problems / Behavioral Science and Psychology / Clinical Psychology / Coalitions / Community / Community and Environmental Psychology / Community coalitions / Community Networks - organization & administration / Community Networks - utilization / Community organizations / Community-based programs / Dissemination / Drug Abuse / Fidelity / Health Care Surveys / Health Psychology / Humans / Implementation / Implementation fidelity / Intervention / Interviews as Topic / Juvenile delinquency / Models, Organizational / Original Article / Parent-child relations / Parents / Personality and Social Psychology / Prevention / Prevention programs / Preventive Medicine - organization & administration / Principals / Psychology / Public Health / Quality / Quality of Health Care / Social programs / Sustainability / Teachers / Technical assistance / Teenagers / Training / United States