Seven key levers of change
● Leadership and Governance
● Programs and Service Array
● Contracting and Licensing Procedures
● Training and Supervision
● Policy and Practice
● Systems for Data Collection and Quality Improvement
● Agency Culture and Approaches for Youth Engagement
Protective and Promotive Factors
-
Youth Resilience
-
Social Connections
-
Knowledge of Adolescent Development
-
Concrete Support in Times of Need
-
Cognitive and Social Emotional Competence
What is Youth Thrive?
Youth Thrive is a research-informed model from the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) that combines the most current science about adolescent brain development, trauma, resilience, and the importance of social connections into one framework to ensure young people in our care thrive.
Youth Thrive practitioners work with youth to accomplish these goals through building protective and promotive factors. In Vermont, we are building the skills and knowledge of youth care workers across the state to improve youth outcomes through incorporating the development of these factors into our care. Our first line of adopters are professionals working with youth who have been involved with the Department for Children and Families or the Juvenile Justice system, or who are homeless, precariously housed or at high risk.
Goals and Outcomes
Over the next several years the Youth Thrive State Coordination Team will be working on a multifaceted plan to address these levers with five key goals:
1. Create a statewide, unified framework for youth care across the state.
2. Create opportunities for ongoing trainings for youth care workers using the Youth Thrive framework. We are moving beyond the “one and done” format of training roll-out to create multiple and ongoing opportunities for enhancing learning.
3. Create and support Regional Communities of Practice, where agencies and individuals providing support in local AHS districts can align and strengthen their work together, improving the system response to youth in need.
4. Institutionalize Youth Thrive through ensuring that state contracts, policies and practices reflect the values of the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive factors including:
● Outcomes informed by Youth Thrive principles
● Trauma informed care and cultural competency
● Service expectations that are sensitive to best practice ideas regarding authentic youth involvement
● Promotion and acknowledgement of best practices when responding to adolescents in need
5. Create opportunities, mechanisms and a culture which solicits feedback
and engages youth in developing programming that impacts them.
Arthur Milton