Creating Opportunities Through Mentoring, Parenting and Safe Spaces - Democratic Republic of Congo
Condition: Sexual Assault; Interpersonal Relations; Marital Status; Domestic Violence
Study type: Interventional

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.
    

Detailed description: 
      The study will examine the relative impact of the parenting initiative in addition to the
      program for adolescent girls. The study will seek to determine whether the structured
      intervention with girls' parents has an added impact on outcomes improve girls' safety and
      well-being. Research will focus on unpacking the components of the program in order to
      determine which components or combination of components have the most impact. This research
      will include a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches to establish a foundation for
      good programming that supports adolescent girls' safe and healthy transition into adulthood.

      The study assessment will employ a mixed methods approach with most data collection occurring
      at pre-test/baseline and post-intervention, although a qualitative assessment will also be
      performed at the intervention midpoint as a process indicator. Quantitative survey methods
      will be used to evaluate attitudes towards a host of topics related to physical and financial
      assets and health-related behaviors. Survey questions will be administered using Audio
      Computer Assisted Self-Interviewing (ACASI) and Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing
      (CAPI). Quantitative methods will be used to yield statistical measures of the scale of
      changes in attitudes, skills, and behaviors due to the intervention.

      Qualitative methods will include in-depth semi-structured interviews and focus group
      discussions with girls, their family members and mentors, as well as participatory methods
      with girls to assess topics such as self-esteem, empowerment, and resilience.
    

Intervention name(s): COMPASS; COMPASS plus parenting
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): 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.; The COMPASS plus parenting intervention is the core COMPASS intervention, plus activities for the parents and caregivers of participants.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: Adolescent Health; Democratic Republic of Congo; Sexual Violence