NCT03897894

Enhanced Child Friendly Space Interventions for Children

A Randomised Control Trial of Enhanced Child Friendly Space Interventions for Girls and Boys Affected by Conflict and Displacement

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 2,015 (actual)
• Sponsor: Columbia University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 14 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

A 3-arm randomised controlled trial will be conducted to compare the effectiveness of a new enhanced Child Friendly Space service package with the basic Child Friendly Space service implementation, and to a waitlist control condition, within the West Nile refugee response in Uganda.

Detailed description

A Child Friendly Space (CFS) is an acute phase humanitarian intervention designed to provide children with a safe, supportive, and stable environment early after the onset of crisis that will promote their social and emotional well-being, as well strengthen the existing systems of protection required to support children in reaching developmental milestones. Typically, CFSs house a range of structured and unstructured activities led by trained animators in a community-designated safe area. The basic service package offers a mixture of recreational and non-formal education activities over a twelve-week period. Each session lasts around 1.5 - 3 hours. Structured activities offered include basic literacy and numeracy lessons, life skills exercises, health and hygiene sessions, and traditional song and dance. Many activities are centered around various forms of play that enable expression and age-appropriate skill development. Unstructured free play and playground time is allocated throughout the daily session. The enhanced service package provides 40 sequential sessions selected by CFS program staff in advance and implemented over a twelve-week period. Activities are meant to build upon and reinforce one another and are organized into seven psychosocial themes: 1) Building community: "Our space together", 2) Emotional learning: "My feelings", 3) Wellbeing and coping: "Feeling good", 4) Social support: "My friends and family", 5) Relating to others: "Being a good friend", 6) Protection and boundaries: "My safety", and 7) Building on strengths: "All my supports". Each session takes approximately 1.5 - 2 hours to facilitate and will conclude with 1-1.5 hours unstructured free play time.

Conditions

• Psychosocial Stressors
• Child, Only
• Mental Health Wellness 1
• Child Development

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Child Friendly Space	Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) are one of the most widely used interventions to provide Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) as well as provide a protective environment for children in humanitarian settings.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-05-28
• Primary completion: 2020-11-20
• Completion: 2020-11-20
• First posted: 2019-04-01
• Last updated: 2020-12-08

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Uganda