Evaluation of the Attorney General's Children Exposed to Violence Demonstration Program: Phase I

In response to the problem of childhood exposure to violence, the Attorney General has launched an ambitious program to test comprehensive, community-based strategies in six sites nationwide. The sites are: Boston, MA; Cuyahoga County, OH; Grand Forks, ND; Shelby County, TN; and two tribal sites, the Chippewa Cree Tribe (MT) and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe (SD). Each site will implement a wide range of strategies across their target communities. The goals of this Phase II evaluation are: (1) to conduct a thorough process evaluation of all six demonstration sites; (2) to conduct a rigorous impact evaluation of all six demonstrations; and (3) to disseminate findings to appropriate federal, state, and local policymakers and practitioners across the country who might benefit from understanding the results of the six pilot demonstrations.

Research Design and Methodology

Annual site visits will be conducted to all six sites, with additional visits to the tribal sites. During these visits, steps will be taken to ensure that systems are in place to collect required data; semi-structured interviews will be conducted with site representatives to understand and
assess the implementation of each strategy; and project obstacles and/or modifications to initial plans will be documented as lessons for future jurisdictions. Process evaluation activities will also include tracking quantitative implementation indicators, such as numbers of trainings or
other events held, numbers of schools or children served through prevention programs, or numbers of parents or children participating in other prevention or intervention efforts. In addition to collecting common core indicators of children exposed to violence (CEV) from all sites (e.g., police data, social
welfare data, and service usage), a two-wave, representative survey in each site's target community will be conducted to assess changes in awareness of CEV and local resources,violence-related attitudes and behaviors, and exposure to local awareness campaign messages and materials. The evaluators will also identify specific strategies in some sites on which to conduct additional impact evaluation activities. Finally, the design and methodology will vary for the tribal sites, given their extended planning period and additional technical assistance needs.

nca/ncf