Project SAFE: Linking evaluation to family violence prevention strategies for underserved populations

Project SAFE (Support and Advocacy for Family Empowerment) is a child abuse & neglect prevention program that is built upon a platform of direct services for underserved families, community collaboration, and capacity building driven by innovative evaluation strategies. To create a comprehensive evaluation plan, public health professionals and mental healthcare workers collaborated to develop and implement a design that incorporates evaluation into service delivery yet remains sensitive to risk reduction and safety. Furthermore, the populations served are empowered to provide confidential process, impact, and outcome data – giving them an unfettered voice that has historically gone unheard. At intake Project SAFE families are provided with the evaluation timeline. Families know what to expect, when to expect it, and who will be soliciting the data. Therapists and evaluation staff then partner to collect evaluation data of value to all stakeholders. Validated tools that are clinically relevant provide therapists with essential information at intake and discharge while also acting as pre- and post- impact measures. These data are supplemented by measures conducted by the evaluator with volunteer public health interns. This replicable model brings therapists into the evaluation process while empowering underserved families and collecting data to drive program modification. The result is a high level of evaluation compliance, learning opportunities for public health interns, an open feedback channel for underserved populations, and the ability to leverage resources in this economically challenging time.