Creating Opportunities Through Mentoring, Parental Involvement and Safe Spaces - Ethiopia

Summary

The study is a randomized controlled trial of COMPASS, an intervention for adolescent girls in three refugee camps in Ethiopia. The study design will employ a two group wait-list cluster randomized controlled trial where girls will be invited to participate in the COMPASS program, assigned to groups of approximately 20 for the purposes of the program, complete a pre-test baseline assessment, and will then be randomized by group to the intervention or control condition. In addition, qualitative research will address additional questions of acceptability, processes of change and best practice.

Groups in three refugee camps - Sherkole, Bambasi, and Tongo - will be randomized to determine whether the participants receive the intervention or are placed on the wait-list immediately following the baseline. Those that do not get the curriculum during the study will receive it following the endline phase of the study so as to not create tensions or jealousies.

The intervention, the COMPASS program, will involve a structured intervention for girls between the ages of 13-19 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.

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 13-19 year old girls in three refugee camps in Ethiopia. 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

No intervention

Wait list control group will not receive an intervention. After the follow-up study, the wait-list control group will receive the regular COMPASS program

Sponsors & Collaborators

• International Rescue Committee

  collaborator OTHER

• Department for International Development, United Kingdom

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Columbia University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lindsay Stark, PhD · Associate Professor of Population and Family Health, Columbia University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

13 Years

Max Age

19 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2015-08-31

Primary Completion

2016-09-30

Completion

2016-09-30

Countries

• United States
• Ethiopia

Study Locations