Community-Level Implementation of a Strengths-Based Primary Child Maltreatment Prevention Program: Insights from Child Welfare Practitioners, Administrators, and Cross-System Partners

Background and purpose: The existing literature underscores the systematic implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs). Understanding implementation successes, failures, and critical supports and barriers is crucial for informing future efforts, replication, and addressing fidelity issues. However, while limited literature focuses on practitioners’ perspectives regarding the organization-level implementation of interventions following foster care entry, there remains a gap regarding the community-level implementation of primary child maltreatment prevention promising programs. Considering the national paradigm shift toward prevention, it is urgent to address this gap. This study explored the perspectives of child welfare practitioners and administrators, and cross-system partners who collaborated in the implementation of a multicomponent strengths-based primary child maltreatment prevention promising program, with the purpose of identifying key facilitators and barriers.

Methods: This study corresponds to the initial implementation phase of a multiyear, federally-funded project evaluating the implementation of family resource centers (FRCs)—a multicomponent strengths-based primary child maltreatment prevention program using a data-informed, strengths-based, and collaborative model. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were used to collect data from 22 participants, including six child welfare practitioners and four administrators who implemented the FRCs, along with 12 partners from multiple systems (health care, probation, behavioral health, library, early education, social services, parenting education, and philanthropy) who supported the FRCs implementation. Constructivist thematic analysis was used to examine text data from transcripts.

Findings: Implementation facilitators and barriers were identified at the intervention, provider, client, process, organization, and cross-system/community level. Participants lauded FRCs as a “one-stop shop,” describing them as welcoming, supportive, and destigmatized spaces, “tailored to community needs.” The intervention’s flexibility, adaptability, and intentionality in building protective factors and using data to inform decision-making were identified as major facilitators. Additionally, the intervention’s core components, such as concrete supports, family fun events, navigators, and A Window Between Worlds—a promising practice—enhanced trust building and family engagement. The intervention’s complexity made implementation more difficult. Client-intervention fit enhanced client engagement and satisfaction. Provider qualities like community-savviness, flexibility, and being a “people person,” were deemed “key to the FRC’s success.” Barriers included limited staff capacity and “lots of coordination.” At the process-level, facilitators included training, fidelity, and strong, adaptable, and passionate leadership, whereas barriers corresponded to hiring staff, leadership availability, and approval delays. Cross-system facilitators comprised a shared vision; alignment of initiatives; funding flexibility; reciprocity; a multi-team collaborative structure; broad system representation. Cross-system barriers included initial siloed systems and unclear roles. Partners noted that “FRCs improved collaboration [and]... services for families in the community,” and “make [their] job easier,” and enhances partners’ hope for change: “FRCs start a community transformation process.”

Conclusions and implications: Our findings highlight the critical role of flexibility, adaptability, intentionality, and collaboration in implementing a strengths-based primary child maltreatment prevention program across multiple levels, especially amidst challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic. A unique contribution of our study lies in identifying key facilitators and barriers to community-level implementation of primary prevention programs involving collaboration. Insights from professionals inform future efforts, emphasizing the need for tailored and early interventions, robust leadership, and coordinated support.