EVALUATION OF PARENTS ANONYMOUS

iolent offenders through construction or lease of prison beds. Beginning with FY 1999 funding, the recipient may use up to ten percent of the VOI/TIS award for expenses associated with implementing a program of drug testing, intervention and sanctions for incarcerated offenders or offenders under corrections supervision. The amount available for this purpose is: $684,626 from previous awards plus $120,288for a total of $804,934.

Parents Anonymous, Inc., is a national child abuse prevention program dedicated to family strengthening in partnership with local communities. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the Parents Anonymous program in preventing and treating child abuse and neglect through a cooperative agreement. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency is conducting this evaluation in two phases. Phase I is a process evaluation that is investigated how the theoretical premises, principles, best practices, and model of Parents Anonymous are operationalized in a sample of programs selected by the evaluator. The process evaluation resulted in an in-depth understanding of why parents seek help, how the program tries to help parents change, what factors influence initial and continued involvement in the program, and other relevant issues. Phase II will present a preliminary approach to conducting the outcome evaluation in the selected programs. This will include a detailed discussion of the overall design of the outcome evaluation and include methods for selecting programs and comparison groups, designing and testing data collection instruments, and collecting and analyzing data. This phase of the evaluation is currently underway.

CA/NCF

The primary purpose of the project is to assess the effectiveness of Parents Anonymous® programs in preventing and treating child abuse and neglect. As such, the goals of the outcome evaluation are to:
Goal 1. Assess the effectiveness of the Parents Anonymous® programs and their different structures in preventing and treating child abuse and neglect for Spanish speaking families.
Goal 2. Assess differences between Spanish speaking families that continue in Parents Anonymous® and those that do not.
Goal 3. Investigate which factors and/or circumstances either contribute to or detract from the effectiveness of the Parents Anonymous® program for Spanish speaking families.

nca/ncf