Child Maltreatment Prevention: Toward an Evidence-Based Approach

I used this assignment in a master's level social work class (which included a fair number of bachelor's students, as well) to help teach the skills for conducting literature reviews and critically consuming research.  Administrators from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) wanted to know what prevention strategies were typically used to address child maltreatment, and what the state of the evidence base was on each.  Students were divided into groups and given instructions for completing a systematic literature review--i.e., a review with pre-defined search terms, search databases, time frames, etc.  The introduction of the document provides an overview of the approach, and each subsequent chapter represents a student group's findings with respect to specific prevention strategies.  The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) supported further editing and formatting of the final document, which was delivered to DCF and distributed to IRP's network.  The students walked away with a publication to put on their CV, and the end product was a useful resource for people working in the prevention field.  

Note:  The instructions for the literature review are included in a separate document.  There is reference to "article critique worksheets".  See my assignment on "Critical Consumption of Research" for these worksheets.  

Another note/advice:  There was quite a bit of work after the class ended to edit and format the final product.  I had two great doctoral students at the time who assisted with this, as well as a professional editor from IRP.  My point is this is not something to take on unless you have the capacity (and will) to put in extra hours after the class is over....