The Global Resilience Oral Workshops (GROW) Free and Strong programs take a strengths-based, positive youth development (PYD) approach to promoting thriving. Through both prevention (GROW Strong) and intervention (GROW Free) exercises, these programs aim to build character and emotional resilience while also lowering unhealthy alcohol use. To…

Mental health challenges for youth continue to be a growing concern. Youth-serving organizations have the potential to play a significant role in recognizing the signs and symptoms of mental health challenges in youth. The Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) training course is widely used to equip adults working with youth with skills to support…

Although US teenage birth rates substantially decreased over the past two decades, it still remains the highest in the developed world. More innovative, community-wide initiatives are needed to combat the issue. In Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, the Central Oklahoma Teen Pregnancy Prevention Collaboration is utilizing the collective impact model to…

Scholars and researchers are increasingly calling attention to the need for community-based coalitions to become more inclusive of local residents and engage those most directly affected by the issues. One population, however, often remains the recipient of services as opposed to partners or leaders in community change initiatives: youth. Over the…

Common typologies frame youth participation as something that exists at different hierarchical, or linear, levels or stages. In these models, non-participation is positioned as something negative or not addressed at all. Scholars have critiqued these typologies for ignoring contextual specificities and complexities, nuances, and power dynamics…

Youths trained in intervention skills can help stop a suicide through effective communication and an empathetic response. Extension professionals and community partners developed a layered approach to teaching suicide intervention skills, involving school staff, other community-based adults, and youths in a consistent community training process.…

When youth are placed in detention facilities, their education, ties to society, and lives are disrupted. Yet any involvement with the justice system -- regardless of incarceration -- can have implications for one's future earning potential and career trajectory, limiting access to educational opportunities, career fields, and available supports.…

In the United States, involvement with the juvenile justice system can have a long-lasting negative impact on one's life. Young people who are placed in detention facilities are removed from their homes, their families, and their communities. Their education, their ties to society, and their lives are disrupted. Involvement with the justice system…

The challenges presented by the growing prevalence, burden, and unmet service needs of youth mental health problems are formidable. During the past decade, scholars and other stakeholders of the Missouri Prevention Center (MPC) have been using a prevention and implementation science approach to develop, implement, evaluate, and disseminate…

This study profiles tutoring programs that empower urban youth within the Regional Institute of Tutorial Education (RITE), a community collaborative of universities, youth agencies, community service organizations, and school districts. Representative members of RITE detail how they address shared urban problems of academic deficits, school…

This project increased awareness about issues of violence to youth, their communities, and policy makers through the technique of photovoice and its translation into photo exhibitions and other community events. Youth participants learned photography skills, engaged in critical communal discussions about important issues affecting their health,…

Youth suicide prevention is an important public health issue. However, few prevention programs are theory driven or systematically evaluated. This study evaluated Connect, a community-based youth suicide prevention program. Analysis of pre and posttraining questionnaires from 648 adults and 204 high school students revealed significant changes in…

Because they often set out with a guarantee of only short-term funding, many community partnerships will face a threat to their sustainability almost as soon as the first money runs out. Research into the factors that enable some coalitions and partnerships to meet the challenge when others fail is limited. This study begins to fill this gap in…

Established in the year 2000, the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education is a multidisciplinary center located at a school of social work that engages in collaborative, community-based research and evaluation that spans multiple systems and disciplines. The Center currently occupies 4,200 sq. ft. with multiple offices and…

Translational research (Pentz, Jasuja, Rohrbach, Sussman, & Bardo, 2006; Woolf, 2008) is concerned with moving advances in prevention science into everyday practice in communities, yet there are few models for ensuring this transfer of knowledge. Communities That Care (CTC) provides a planned, structured, and data-driven system that trains…