Redesign on the fly: Safer Bars and the Toronto experience

In this paper we describe the experiences and lessons learned at the 18-month mark of the Safer Bars project, a three-year randomised control evaluation of an intervention to reduce bar violence. As part of the planning for the project, findings and lessons from bar-room intervention and observation research in Australia (Homel et al. 1997), the US (Saltz & Stanghetta 1997), the UK (MCM Research 1993), Canada (Graham & Wells 2001; Wells & Graham & West 1998), and elsewhere (see review by Graham 2000) were incorporated into the study methods and design. The project team also included investigators and consultants who were experienced with the workings of bars. In addition, the intervention had been tested extensively throughout the province of Ontario (see Chandler-Coutts et al. 2000). Nevertheless, as so happens in real-world research, the implementation of this large-scale project in Toronto, Canada encountered a number of challenges and setbacks. This paper describes the major challenges and how they were addressed.