Blueprints for Violence Prevention Promising Programs

CASASTART - Rationale for Removal From Promising List

BPP04 Removal

2011

A previous randomized evaluation of CASASTART in five cities had determined its effectiveness in reducing drug use and violence at one-year post-intervention (Harrell et al., 1997, 1998). That evaluation resulted in the identification of CASASTART as a Blueprints for Violence Prevention Promising program. A replication study was needed to move CASASTART to Model program status. The Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to conduct a replication study. The new study failed to replicate the results found in the original study. Although there were some positive outcomes found for boys, girls received no benefits from the program and showed negative impacts on both prevalence and frequency measures on multiple self-reported delinquency variables. The evaluation findings resulted in the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (NCASA) at Columbia University discontinuing the program, at least until the results for girls could be better understood. Subsequently, the Blueprints Advisory Board voted to remove CASASTART from the Promising list of programs.

A brief description of the replication study design and results can be found in the following pdf document:
CASASTART Blueprints Removal