Strong Communities for Children

This is a comprehensive community program to promote family and community well-being, as well as to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Services may be available in a universal version or by integration into mainstream settings to build or strengthen families’ social support, foster mutual assistance and parental leadership, and increase access to social and/or material resources, as needed.

Impact evaluations

Impact evaluation studies revealed that, after five years of follow-up, the program had increased social support, collective and parental efficacy, child safety at home, parenting practices and skills, decreased parental stress [1] [2], and family quality of life and community norms related to child and family well-being [3].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Haski-Leventhal, D., Ben-Arieh, A. & Melton, G. B. (2008). Between neighborliness and volunteerism: Participants in the strong communities initiative. Family & Community Health, 31(2), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.FCH.0000314575.58905.a1

[2] McDonell, J. R., Ben-Arieh, A. & Melton, G. B. (2015). Strong Communities for Children: Results of a multi-year community-based initiative to protect children from harm. Child Abuse & Neglect, 41, 79–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.11.016

Information source

The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse