This program is for youth who are 9 to 11 years old and have been maltreated and placed in out-of-home care.

Fostering Healthy Futures® for Preteens (FHF-P), a community-based positive youth development program, is designed to promote healthy behaviors and decrease mental health concerns and risk factors, such as substance abuse, school delinquency, and risky sexual actions through one-on-one mentoring and skill-based group training.

Results from an internal randomized controlled trial demonstrated positive, sustained effects on placement and permanency outcomes, especially among intervention youth who were residing in non-kinship foster care at baseline. This study also assessed psychosocial outcomes at program end and 6 months later. At program end, the only treatment effect detected was for quality of life; however, this effect faded by the 6-month follow-up. At the 6-month follow-up, treatment effects were found for mental health symptoms, dissociation, and recent mental health therapy receipt. Results from a larger internal RCT that sought to extend previous findings demonstrated reductions in mental health symptoms, including post-traumatic stress symptoms, and use of mental health services and less self-reported total and non-violent delinquency between ages 14 and 18 and fewer court charges for total and violent delinquency in mid adolescence. Overall, children who had been exposed to fewer adverse childhood experiences experienced better outcomes compared to those with greater adversities.

FHF-P intends to build resilience in youth and remove the stigma of out-of-home care. The program consists of the following components:

• Mentoring - Each child is paired with a mentor who offers emotional and practical support. Mentors encourage new skill acquisition, promote the use of suitable child services, and offer opportunities for youth to participate in activities that could enhance relationships and newly learned skills.
• Skills-based group - Children follow a specialized curriculum that uses diverse approaches, such as role play, games, drawing, and small-group activities, and includes topics such as emotion recognition, anger management, problem solving, substance use, peer pressure, perspective taking, abuse prevention, change and loss, healthy relationships, and future orientation.

In addition, before or after each session, youth participate in a group dinner where they are encouraged to practice new skills.

Fostering Healthy Futures for Teens (FHF-T)® is available for 8th and 9th grade students who are involved in the child welfare system. Please visit https://www.fosteringhealthyfutures.org/programs/teen for more information.

Fostering Healthy Futures (FHF) was developed in 2002 at the Kempe Center and University of Colorado School of Medicine by Heather Taussig. FHF-T was developed in 2012 and is supported by the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work and the Kempe Center.

This program is facilitated by a variety of individuals, including mentors, group supervisors, group co-leaders, and group assistants. Mentors are graduate students who are studying social work or a mental health-related field in a master's- or doctoral-level program. They must undergo a background check and intensive interviews to be selected. Group supervisors must have supervisory experience and have attained a master's or doctorate degree and licensure. Group co-leaders are graduate students studying a related field. Additional group assistants who help with tasks, such as set-up, meal preparation, and clean-up, are not required to have a degree but should have experience working with children. Group supervisors complete a 3-day, in-person training; group supervisors and skills group leaders receive 3 additional hours of training and 1-2 hours per week of ongoing training throughout the intervention; mentors complete 24 hours of training.

Considerations for implementing this program include recruiting and training suitable staff, acquiring participant buy-in, obtaining necessary resources to prepare and serve meals, and understanding funds may be needed to pay for facilitator training and program implementation.

The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

If you are interested in implementing FHF-P, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Skills groups meet for 30 weeks for 1.5 hours each week. Groups also eat dinner before or after group sessions, and the time and duration of meals varies. Mentors meet with children individually 2 to 4 hours each week and transport youth to and from group sessions.

Information on implementation costs was not located. Please use details in the Contact section to learn more.

To move FHF-P to the Effective category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence, at least one external evaluation must be conducted that demonstrates sustained, positive outcomes. This study must be conducted independently of the program developer.

The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu

Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu

You may also contact Fostering Healthy Futures by visiting https://www.fosteringhealthyfutures.org/contact

https://www.cebc4cw.org/program/fostering-healthy-futures-fhf/detailed; https://www.fosteringhealthyfutures.org/; and Taussig, Culhane, and Hettleman (2007).