A public-private partnership is gaining momentum as it applies philanthropic dollars to help the S.C. Department of Social Services reduce child abuse and neglect.
The effort centers on expanding the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) in South Carolina, where there were 7,129 children with substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect in 2023 – 24. Triple P is one of the most well-known and respected parenting programs in the world. Its five-tier suite of interventions offers families increasingly intense levels of assistance depending on their needs. Studies have shown that when widely available and implemented correctly, Triple P reduces child abuse and parental stress and improves positive parenting practices.
The Duke Endowment supports the expansion effort, led by the Partnership to Fund Proven Programs (PFPP). The partnership is a national group that seeks to use philanthropic matching funds as an incentive for state and local governments to support the expansion of proven social programs to drive toward sustained improvements in people’s lives.
PFPP aims to be a scalable model of philanthropic-government collaboration to expand and further evaluate proven programs. Since state and local government funds (including money from the federal government) dwarf the amount that philanthropy alone can provide, the partnership can help lawmakers identify proven programs worth expanding at scale.
How does PFPP work?
- The nonprofit, nonpartisan Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy oversees PFPP and is coordinating the initiative. The Coalition is unaffiliated with any programs, enabling it to serve as an independent source of expertise on evidence-based reform.
- The Endowment and government officials, in consultation with the Coalition, identifies a proven program that we and government leaders want to help scale. Proven programs are those with strong randomized controlled trial evidence of important impacts, replicated across multiple studies or study sites.
- State government will:
- Match our funds for the program expansion in equal or greater amount; and,
- Work cooperatively with an independent evaluator to evaluate the program delivered under the partnership.
South Carolina Department of Social Services and the Endowment are partnering to expand Triple P. So far:
- The State has appropriated $750,000 of recurring funds, which the Endowment will match.
- Triple P America, S.C. Department of Social Services, the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy and the Endowment are collaboratively planning the implementation and evaluation of Triple P.
- The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy is leading the planning and evaluation conversations.
For more information on the effort to expand Triple P in South Carolina, contact Phil Redmond at predmond@tde.org.