Evaluation of Caregivers Helping to Affect and Nurture Children Early (CHANCE) program: A family violence prevention program for early care and education providers

The CHANCE (Caregivers Helping to Affect and Nurture Children Early) curriculum is an education and training program to help Early Care and Education (ECE) providers recognize the impact of domestic violence (DV) on children, symptoms of exposure to DV and to respond in ways that support the child and family. This three-year project implemented the CHANCE curriculum in two ECE centers, educated parents through a public awareness campaign and partnered with local service providers such as, child trauma, batterers' treatment, and child abuse prevention organizations, to provide a multi-modal intervention to prevent child abuse and raise awareness about the devastating effects of DV on children. The ultimate goal of the project was to empower the ECE community to respond to family violence in a safe and effective manner. This study used mixed methods to evaluate process, impact and outcome measures of the project. At the end of the project, DV victimization reported by parents decreased 29% from 42.5% at baseline to 30.0% at post-test. ECE provider knowledge of and connection to available resources increased 21.1% from 71.2% to 86.2%, an effect size of .18. Child protective services reports decreased 17.8% from 2006 to 2009 in the two zip codes, an effect size of .34. The CHANCE program appeared to have a moderate impact on knowledge, attitudes, skills and behavior of parents and ECE providers. At the end of the project, parents and guardians felt that the ECE environment was an appropriate place to address DV.