In states with universal mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect (CAN), it is essential that people who work with children and youth in a community be appropriately trained to recognize and report CAN. The primary goal of CAN training is early detection and intervention with a secondary purpose of impacting rates of violence, disease, drug use, and teen pregnancies in the community. The purpose of this project was to implement a standardized, community-tailored CAN training for laypersons and a train-the-trainer program in a rural Oklahoma community. The CAN training was evaluated on knowledge, confidence, training satisfaction, and willingness to participate in the train-the-trainer session. The train-the-trainer session was evaluated on confidence and training satisfaction. Participant knowledge and confidence was measured by comparing pretest scores to immediate and 4 months after the training posttest scores. Posttest scores indicated increase in knowledge at the posttest (p < .001) and posttest 2 (p < .001). There was a significant increase in confidence at the posttest (p < .001) and posttest 2 (p = .009).
Keywords: child abuse; churches; neglect; rural population; school nurse; schools; volunteers.