Creating Opportunities Through Mentoring, Parenting and Safe Spaces - Democratic Republic of Congo

Summary

The study is a randomized controlled trial of COMPASS, an intervention for adolescent girls in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The study design will employ a two-arm randomized controlled trial where girls will be enrolled at the same time and randomized to receive a basic package of services, which includes life skills education and access to mentors in safe spaces, or the basic package plus a structured parenting intervention for girls' caregivers. An experimental design will be used to evaluate the relative impact of the parenting initiative in addition to the safe space program for girls. In addition, qualitative research will address additional questions of acceptability, processes of change and best practice.

Groups in North and South Kivu will be randomized so that every group is randomly designated as a group that will either roll out the core intervention or the intervention plus caregiver component. Groups that do not receive the parental intervention during the study will receive the intervention when the study is complete to reduce communal jealousies.

The intervention, the COMPASS program, will involve a structured intervention for girls between the ages of 10-14 that is intended to engage adolescent girls, those who are influential in their lives, service providers and other stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of co-creating environments in which girls are valued and safe. The program is centered on establishing or supporting community-supported safe spaces for girls where they can come and gather among themselves and participate in a structured life-skills curriculum. In addition to the safe spaces for girls, the COMPASS project will also implement structured activities for the parents and caregivers of participants.

Conditions

• Sexual Assault
• Interpersonal Relations
• Marital Status
• Domestic Violence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

COMPASS

COMPASS (Creating Opportunities through Mentoring, Parental involvement and Safe Spaces) is a program for 10-14 year old girls in Eastern DRC. The program is a structured intervention that is intended to engage adolescent girls, through life skills training and establishing or supporting community-supported safe spaces for girls where they can come and gather among themselves and participate in a structured life-skills curriculum.

BEHAVIORAL

COMPASS plus parenting

The COMPASS plus parenting intervention is the core COMPASS intervention, plus activities for the parents and caregivers of participants.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• International Rescue Committee

  collaborator OTHER

• Department for International Development, United Kingdom

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Columbia University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lindsay Stark · Associate Professor of Population and Family Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

10 Years

Max Age

14 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-06-30

Primary Completion

2016-11-30

Completion

2016-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations