March 2005Vol. 6, No. 2Cost-Effective Strategies for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
A new report brings together some of the recent information on the cost-effectiveness of child abuse prevention programs. Produced by the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Programs, the report provides a brief review of the value of prevention and describes some of the difficulties in measuring effectiveness of prevention programs. The bulk of the report is devoted to descriptions of noteworthy prevention programs. These fall under a variety of categories:
- Home visitation programs
- Parent education programs
- Parent support groups
- Programs offered in school or childcare settings
- Respite and crisis care programs
- Family resource and support centers
The report concludes with a listing of web resources and a discussion of factors to consider in implementing replications of prevention programs.
The full report, Making the Case for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect: An Overview of Cost Effective Prevention Strategies, is available on the FRIENDS website at www.friendsnrc.org/joomdocs/Report1.pdf (PDF - 155 KB).