Child Services Providers Adopting Proven Strategies

In South Carolina, Project BEST is helping communities offer high quality help for abused children.

The Duke Endowment has committed $16 million since 2008 to help expand the use of proven, evidence-based interventions in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Insights

The draw of evidence-based practices is compelling, but implementing them successfully in new locations requires the right infrastructure to assure appropriate service delivery and results. New sites must have the financial means and human resources to provide ongoing quality assurance, training, monitoring and data collection to remain true to the fundamental tenets of an evidence-based program.

In some cases, The Duke Endowment determined that its support would be best used to create or strengthen infrastructure for implementing a program, rather than simply supporting service delivery. This approach allowed the Endowment to complement the existing efforts of public funders and expand their effectiveness.

Impact

In a 2007 discussion with The Duke Endowment’s Trustees, former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher said that it takes roughly 17 years for a proven intervention strategy to take root in mainstream practice. With this initiative, the Endowment is accelerating the adoption rate of some evidence-based interventions in North and South Carolina.

Since 2008, implementation sites delivering the evidence-based interventions in this initiative, plus Nurse-Family Partnership, have reached more than 13,000 children and families, and have trained more than 200 child service providers. The Duke Endowment’s investment in implementation averages $2,500 per family, as compared to traditional foster care costs of $35,000 per child, per year.

Contact Us

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Associate Director
704.969.2117