Effectiveness and Evaluation
Evaluation of Stop It Now!'s Circles of Safety for Foster Care Programs
Through a grant awarded from Raliance, a collaborative initiative to end sexual violence in one generation, made possible through a commitment from the National Football League (NFL), Stop It Now! offered Circles of Safety for Foster Care Programs - a sexual abuse safety prevention training series tailored for foster care programs and foster parents - to four different foster care programs in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This evalution report, based on the findings from a series of focus groups and pre and post training surveys, measures the program effects and gathers program participant perceptions about the Circles of Safety for Foster Care program.
Through this project, evaluation results showed that:
On average, Circles of Safety: Awareness to Action program participants who participated in a full-day training for recognizing and responding to sexual abuse reported:
- Increased awareness of sexual abuse and positive changes to their behaviors and confidence to handle sexual abuse
- Increased knowledge about healthy sexuality for different ages
- Increased knowledge about the importance of safety planning
100% of Leadership participants, who participated in a full-day training to create community planning steps to enhance their organization’s safety planning, and Training of Trainers program participants, who were prepared to teach workshops, reported:
- Increased awareness of how policies and procedures can be used to increase safety for children in the foster care program
- Provided opportunities to initiate action
- Reported positive satisfaction with the training
To download the full report, click here.
Evaluation of Stop It Now!'s Circles of Safety for Youth and Family Service Programs
This report was funded by the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, a nonprofit dedicated to enriching the lives of people in Western Massachusetts. Circles of Safety was administered to three departments in one community multi-service organization in Western Massachusetts in the spring of 2018. To measure program impact, pre and post staff surveys were designed to measure changes to the knowledge and awareness of CSA issues, prevention skills, perceived changes to CSA prevention, changes in attitudes, as well as gather participant perceptions of the training program. A needs assessment, including staff surveys and focus groups, was completed at the start of the project.
Training participants reported:
- Increased knowledge about healthy sexuality
- Increased knowledge about the importance of safety planning
- Increased knowledge about behaviors that constitute contact sexual abuse
100% of Supervisors trained reported that as a result of participation, awareness of best practices was increased and 93% increased their confidence to support staff and famlies in their programs on sexual abuse prvention best practices.
To download the executive summary, click here.
For an evaluation specific to Circles of Safety for Higher Education, click here.
What Circles of Safety Training Participants have to say...
“I was very impressed with the training content as well as the trainer. It was refreshing to come to this hard topic from the vantage point of prevention. ”
“I enjoyed how knowledgeable the presenter was, the energy of the presenter, and the material was presented in a positive way that grabbed my attention.”
"...a dynamic presenter, really engaged. Content was easy to learn and put into practice and will help in the workplace and at home.”
“Thank you! The training was extremely valuable. I learned a lot and I am so glad I attended.”