Translational research in action: implementation of the communities that care prevention system in 12 communities

Abstract

Translational research (Pentz, Jasuja, Rohrbach, Sussman, & Bardo, 2006; Woolf, 2008) is concerned with moving advances in prevention science into everyday practice in communities, yet there are few models for ensuring this transfer of knowledge. Communities That Care (CTC) provides a planned, structured, and data-driven system that trains community prevention coalitions to select evidence-based programs and replicate them with strong implementation fidelity. This paper describes the implementation of the CTC prevention system in 12 communities participating in the Community Youth Development Study. The results indicated that intervention communities enacted, on average, 90% of the core components of the CTC system, and achieved high rates of implementation fidelity when replicating school, afterschool, and parent training programs. These results held over time; communities successfully launched their prevention coalitions and programs and maintained the quality of their prevention services over five years. These results indicate that the CTC system can be used to foster translational research.

Benefit–cost analysis of a randomized evaluation of Communities That Care: monetizing intervention effects on the initiation of delinquency and substance use through grade 12

“…After-school programs included both universal (e.g., Stay SMART) and selective (e.g., tutoring programs and the Big Brothers/Big Sisters mentoring program) interventions. A comprehensive list of interventions is provided in Fagan et al (2009). Technical assistance through Grade 9 was provided via emails, weekly phone calls, and site visits to ensure faithful implementation of CTC and prevention programs.…”

“…CTC's implementation monitoring system consists of assessment instruments that track the quantity and quality of information and activities delivered to participants, as well as independent program observations by trained observers, all of which are used to provide corrective feedback to implementers and implementing agencies as necessary (Fagan et al 2009; Hawkins et al 2008b). Analyses of these data conducted at multiple points during this trial confirmed that evidence-based prevention programs were delivered with fidelity across all CTC communities (Fagan et al 2009) and that the CTC prevention system as a whole was delivered with fidelity as well (Quinby et al 2008). …”

Preventive Parenting Interventions: Advancing Conceptualizations of Participation and Enhancing Reach

“…Even under these optimal circumstances, obtaining high levels of attendance can be challenging. When EBIs are implemented in the context of real-world service delivery, rates of attendance are very low, e.g., < 10%, (Fagan et al 2009;Prinz et al 2009), diminishing their population-level impact (Braver and Smith 1996).…”

Using social marketing to create communities for our children and adolescents that do not model and encourage drinking

“…This resulted in the identification of a further six articles that appeared to meet the inclusion criteria (Hawkins et al, 2012;Brown et al, 2007;Fagan et al, 2009;Wagenaar et al, 2000aWagenaar et al, , 2000bWest et al, 2008).…”

“…Communities that Care (CTC) was a multi-component intervention conducted in 12 towns across the United States (with 12 matched comparison communities) that aimed to reduce initiation of and engagement in substance use and delinquent behaviors (Oesterle et al, 2010Fagan et al, 2009). Intervention communities (led by community coalitions) were able to select from a range of evidence-based programs set out in the CTC Prevention Strategies Guide (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2005).…”