title: Development and Evaluation of a Train-the-Trainer Workshop for Hong Kong Community Social Service Agency Staff.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Capacity building approaches are useful in large-scale community-based health promotion interventions. However, models to guide and evaluate capacity building among social service agency staff in community settings are rare in the literature. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a 1-day (7 h) train-the-trainer (TTT) workshop for the "Enhancing Family Well-Being Project". The workshop aimed at equipping staff from different community agencies with the knowledge and skills to design, implement, and evaluate positive psychology-based interventions for their clients in Sham Shui Po, an over-crowded and low-income district in Hong Kong.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current TTT extended and improved on our previous successful model by adding research and evaluation methods (including the Logic Model, process evaluation, and randomized controlled trial), which are important to plan and evaluate the community interventions. Evaluation of the TTT was guided by the Integrated Model of Training Evaluation and Effectiveness (IMTEE), with quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative data were collected from pretraining (T1), post-training (T2), and 6-month (T3) and 12-month (T4) follow-up surveys. Qualitative data were collected from four focus groups of agency staff after the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ninety-three staff from 30 community agencies attended the training, and 90 completed the baseline survey. Eighty-eight, 63, and 57 staff performed the evaluations at T2, T3, and T4, respectively. Agency staff were satisfied with the TTT. Immediate enhancement of knowledge, self-efficacy, and positive attitudes toward the training content was found at T2 (Cohen'sdranged from 0.24 to 1.22, allp< 0.05). Enhancement of knowledge of all training contents persisted at T3 and T4 (Cohen'sdranged from 0.34 to 0.63, allp< 0.05). Enhancement of self-efficacy in the use of positive psychology in intervention design persisted at T3 (Cohen'sd= 0.22,p= 0.04). The skills learned were utilized to plan and develop subsequent interventions. Twenty-nine interventions were successfully designed and implemented by the agency staff, and delivered to 1,586 participants. The agency staff indicated their intention to utilize the skills they had learned for other interventions (score ≥4 out of 6) and to share these skills with their colleagues. Qualitative feedbacks from 23 agency staff supported the quantitative results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our brief TTT was effectively delivered to a large number of agency staff and showed effects that persisted up to 12 months. Our training and evaluation models may offer a template for capacity building among social service agency staff for community brief, universal family health promotion interventions in diverse settings.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Qianling
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern, Medical Center at Dallas , Dallas, TX , USA.
authors.forename: Sunita M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: Information Systems and Technology Branch, Social Welfare Department , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Charles Sai-Cheong
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Agnes Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Tai Hing
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong , China.
authors.forename: Sophia Siu-Chee
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Chan
keywords: capacity building; community-based intervention; positive psychology; social service agency staff; social work; train-the-trainer; training evaluation