Year One Evaluation Summary Report Expanded Executive Summary

On February 26, 2008, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the Prevention Initiative Demonstration Project (PIDP) as a $5-million one-year child abuse and neglect prevention project. Twelve community-based organizations that lead or co-lead local networks in each of the County’s eight regional Service Planning Areas (SPAs) direct PIDP activities. The network design was intended to facilitate the creation of a comprehensive, strengths-based, locally relevant child abuse and neglect prevention system extending beyond County government and beyond the jurisdiction of any one County department (Los Angeles County Department of Family and Children’s Services, 2008).DCFS deserves substantial credit for working closely with leading community-based organizations (CBOs) to frame the vision that led to PIDP and for encouraging, supporting, and investing in community-based ideas about how prevention should work in different parts of the County. In contrast to previous contract arrangements, DCFS did not predetermine what PIDP services should be but relied on local partnerships between community leaders and administrators of DCFS Regional Offices to develop approaches that fit the needs of eight different regions in this very large and diverse county. The full evaluation report describes the background for developing PIDP, the rationale for how a broad-brush approach to prevention supports and enhances child safety, differences between SPAs in terms of demographics and resource availability, and the evolving prevention partnerships between public and private sectors that support this complex multi-faceted initiative. Each of the PIDP networks focuses on achieving outcomes associated with the prevention of child abuse: decreased social isolation, decreased poverty and lack of resources, increased protective factors, and more effective collaboration between the County’s public child welfare system and community-based organiza-tions. To do so, all of the eight PIDP networks are implementing three braided and integrated strategies: (1) building social networks using strengths-based and relationship-focused community organizing approaches; (2) increasing economic opportunities and development; and, (3) increasing access to and utilization of beneficial services, activities, resources, and supports. The three strategies rest on theories of change that suggest that increases in social capital resulting from social connection and network building strengthens family systems; relationship-based community orga-nizing enhances community capacity for self-management and self-care; and enhancing protective factors associated with strong families increases children’s safety and ability to thrive. While each of the PIDP networks was asked to incorporate all three broad strategies, they were not required to implement them in the same way. Instead, during this first year, they were encouraged to develop approaches and activities that fit the needs of different communities, considering the demographic, social, and economic conditions of different regions and building on local resources to maximize the existing capacity of CBOs, faith-based and grassroots community groups, and other local institutions.