Strategies from Implementation Science Applied to the Triple P System

With funding from two state agencies and additional investments from local and regional partners, the state of North Carolina has scaled-up the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program system of interventions across 36 counties. The overarching aims of this initiative have been to reduce child abuse and neglect, prevent costly treatment services, and improve child, family, and community wellbeing at the population-level. Although a number of successes have been achieved in the past five years, full impact has been hindered by uneven implementation and inconsistent support for state administrators and community Triple P service partnerships alike.

The purpose of the North Carolina Implementation Capacity for Triple P (NCIC-TP) project is to provide proactive and responsive implementation support to communities scaling Triple P and implementation science facilitation to state leaders, funders, policymakers, and other technical assistance providers. The basis of the information, learning, and implementation support provided through NCIC-TP includes findings from two local implementation evaluations and continually emerging evidence and models from implementation science and practice.

Using a theory of change model grounded in local implementation capacity for Triple P as well as an implementation support model with ten core components, this presentation will offer concrete examples of the application of implementation strategies within cross-sector community Triple P partnerships. Case examples will include both process and early outcome data of NCIC-TP implementation support. In addition, an effort to identify and build the capacity of additional statewide Triple P intermediary supports will be discussed, also illustrating process and early outcome data. These additional intermediary supports include: partnership engagement and communication; workforce development; policy and finance support; and research, evaluation, and data-linking.

Lessons will be framed for symposium participants' own research, policy, and practice activities outside the conference. Future directions of North Carolina's state leadership team and the importance of effectively translating implementation science into state and local systems will be discussed.