Evaluation of the Parents as Partners Program, Women’s Health in the South-East

Background

The Parents as Partners program is being evaluated as part of the Partners in Prevention of Sexual Violence Project, which is funding nine community organisation and their prevention of sexual violence programs. Women's Health in the South-East has developed the program, which has then gone through a 6-month development process with the research team at La Trobe University, which has included developing a rigorous evaluation plan. The Parents as Partners program is designed for parents and caregivers of secondary school students in years 7 and 8.

Aim

The program aims to enhance the knowledge, skills, and confidence of parents and caregivers of young people in diverse school environments. The program discusses consent, healthy and respectful relationships, sex, sexuality, sexual health, and gender-based violence, with a specific focus on sexual violence. WHISE has partnered with Sexual Health Victoria, Talking the Talk, and South-East Community Links.

Methods

The evaluation will use a combination of quantitative and creative qualitative methods to gain in-depth insights into the program’s effectiveness in enhancing parents’/caregivers’ (parents) and young peoples’ (aged 12 to 16) knowledge, skills and behaviours surrounding safe relationships.

The design will include:
>Interviews and focus groups
>Pre- and post-surveys
>Facilitator reflection sheets

Significance

The Parents as Partners program has important social, community and service improvement impacts. The program aims to create child-safe environments, within which parents model equity and challenge regressive harmful gender norms, as well as create or strengthen robust, healthy parent-child relationships as protective factors against use or victimisation of harmful sexual behaviours in children, or sexual violence as adults. The program impacts community by building cohesion and supportive connections between parents/caregivers, and encouraging respectful relationships and healthy sexual encounters and relationships. Through this approach, the program aims to create safer home and school environments for the welfare of children. By exploring outcomes such as parent-child communication and relationships, the study contributes to an evidence-base to support parent and caregiver education as a primary prevention intervention for sexual violence. The process aspect of the evaluation will provide valuable insights that will contribute to iterative program development, resulting in an refined product, improved professional practice and improved service delivery through enhanced professional capability and knowledge.

Funding Body

La Trobe University and Department of Social Services

Project start date

May 2025

Expected completion date

December 2026