Digital Resource

Youth Thrive Blueprint

March 16, 2022

Related Areas of Focus: Child Welfare, Youth and Young Adults

Youth Thrive Blueprint thumbnail.

Overview

The Youth Thrive Blueprint is:

  • A practice resource for youth-serving agencies and organizations to advance the well-being of young people—ages 9-26 years.
  • Full of actionable ideas and tools to build young people’s strengths and Protective and Promotive Factors.
  • Developed with a focus on young people in foster care and relevant to other settings such as: afterschool and community-based youth programs, juvenile court systems, programs for young people experiencing homelessness.
  • For any person who wants to promote thriving in young people.

About the Blueprint

  • Youth-serving systems, agencies, and organizations, such as schools, community-based programs, and child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
  • Agency and organizational leadership and staff, those who are new to Youth Thrive, and those already familiar with Youth Thrive who want to do more to support young people.
  • Professionals in the Prevention field who want to apply a youth-centered focus to their preventive services and activities.
  • State plan developers who are implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) and other public policies and are thinking about the holistic needs—physical, social, emotional, and cognitive well-being—of young people.
  • Youth Thrive training participants who want to bring their new knowledge and skills to life in everyday interactions with young people.

Users are encouraged to reflect on where they are in implementing Youth Thrive (e.g., just getting started or having completed the Youth Thrive training(s)) and also to consider:

  • Which parts of the Blueprint are most relevant to their staff’s roles in working with young people?
  • Which parts will assist in strengthening levels of comfort and expertise with the Protective and Promotive Factors?
  • Which parts will help address any current gaps in knowledge or challenges?

For additional support and technical assistance with implementing Youth Thrive, please contact the Youth Thrive team at YouthThrive@CSSP.org.

Practice refers to all of the ways youth-serving professionals interact with young people. The Blueprint is focused on strengthening and shifting practice so that young people are at the forefront when making decisions and leading change. Examples of practice include:

  • Engaging young people in decision-making;
  • Helping young people to access education services;
  • Working with young people to build and maintain a support network;
  • Assisting young people to obtain a driver’s license; and/or
  • Collaborating with young people to create policies.

However, practice alone cannot improve outcomes and support young people in reaching their full potential. Systems and all that they encompass—the people, policies, procedures, funding streams, and decision-making structures—need to pivot and lead the charge in valuing young people, their voice, choice, and power. Systems need to combat and address the systemic racism and biases that lead to inequitable access to resources and poor outcomes for young people, especially for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, and LGBTQ+ young people.

Defining Thriving

Young people are thriving when:

  • They feel loved, accepted, and connected.
  • They have the support, resources, and opportunities they need to fulfill their dreams.
  • They build beyond themselves and are able to give back.
  • They are excited about the future.

Families, communities, organizations, systems and society have central roles in helping young people thrive. They:

  • Build and maintain social connections with family members, peers, and communities so that young people feel loved and supported.
  • Provide nurturing communities that meet young people’s basic needs, encourage trying and learning, and affirm their identities.
  • Recognize the paths toward adulthood and help young people to navigate them.
  • Cultivate young people’s leadership and power.
  • Address institutional and systemic barriers so that young people are successful in their communities and beyond.
  • Recognize the whole person and help young people, families, and communities succeed.

When asked at the 2019 Youth Thrive Convening, “What does thriving mean to you?,” young people shared:

“I know I will be okay no matter what happens.”

”Having hope for the future.”

”Being loved well and loving others well.”

“Thriving is when I elevate my potential/strength!”

Tools

What are Everyday Actions: Youth Workers* Helping Young People
to Thrive?

  • It is a tool for youth workers that brings into practice the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors and a focus on thriving.
  • It is built upon the Youth Thrive Guiding Premises, which are the foundational tenets of a positive and nurturing relationship between an adult and a young person.
  • Organized by the five Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors, each section is focused on developing and enhancing in young people the associated Protective and Promotive Factor.
  • The tool recognizes the interconnectedness of the Protective and Promotive Factors. Some of the Everyday Actions are specific to one Protective and Promotive Factor, while others focus on more than one.
  • It is not a checklist or to-do list. This resource brings together concrete approaches of practice principles, ideas, and opportunities for youth workers to create a relationship with young people that promotes authentic youth engagement, collaboration, youth agency, and success.

Click here to download.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

This brief provides recommendations for how each Protective and Promotive factor can be put into practice to promote safe, stable, and appropriate placements for youth in foster care.

Click here to download.

This interactive guide is designed to provide those working with young people—as well as youth themselves and their parents—with questions that stimulate and enrich conversations about the presence of the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors in a young person’s life, each of which help to reduce risk, increase the likelihood of positive outcomes, and support healthy development and well-being.

Access the guide here.

The Youth Thrive Coaching Tool is designed to give supervisors key questions, guidance, and ideas about how to help workers* assess and support Protective and Promotive Factors with youth.

Access the tool here.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

The Youth Thrive Survey™ is a valid and reliable youth self-report instrument that measures the presence, strength, and growth of the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors as proxy indicators of well-being.

Access the Survey here.

This resource explores how teaming meetings build and strengthen young people’s Protective and Promotive Factors (PPFs) and includes considerations for how to elevate young people’s voice and engagement in teaming meetings.

Access the resource here.

This brief provides considerations and questions for youth workers* and systems to explore with young people and their family that focus on building and strengthening their relationship.

Click here to download.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

This brief provides considerations and questions for youth workers* and system leadership to explore that focus on building and strengthening young people’s relationship with their peers.

Click here to download.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

This brief provides considerations and questions for youth workers* and system leadership to explore that focus on building and strengthening young people’s relationship with peer mentors.

Click here to download.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

Briefs & Crosswalks

These resources bring together Youth Thrive with existing programs and approaches and highlight opportunities to help young people.

Creating a Thriving Culture

Guide to Using the Youth Thrive Vine & Matrix

Vine.

A graphic for agencies and organizations showing key areas of good practice necessary to help youth thrive.

Leaf.

An important area of practice.

Stem.

Leadership that grows and sustains exemplary practice.

Base.

Driving forces and knowledge to create a youth-centered system.

Matrix.

A companion document to the Vine with questions and actions to improve an agency/organization’s practice areas from good to better to exemplary practice.

A graphic that is a visual companion to the Youth Thrive Matrix.

  • The full graphic brings together core components that influence and impact practice to support young people thriving.
  • The individual leaves to represent a practice area for an agency/organization to explore and strengthen its commitment to young people’s success.
  • The stem highlights the important role of leadership to make and sustain youth-focused, strength-based practices that promote young people’s voice, choice, and leadership.
  • The base contains the driving forces and knowledge to create a youth-centered system: Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors; Guiding Premises; lived expertise of young people, families, and communities; and research and evidence-informed practices.

While all of the leaves are important, it is not expected that an agency/organization can address all of them at once. Instead, one should identify specific opportunities based on fit with your organization’s priorities, plans, resources (human and financial), and momentum for change.

Practice can always be improved and is never static. The purpose of the Vine and Matrix is to help improve agency’s/ organization’s youth-centered practices by moving along a continuum of leaves—from good to exemplary practice:

  • One leaf: Good practice; in the early stages of focusing on young people.
  • Two leaves: Strong practice; integrating young people’s voice, choice, and leadership into everyday work.
  • Three leaves: Exemplary practice; bold, transformational practices that integrate young people’s voice, choice, and leadership to advance thriving.

Each new leaf adds on from the prior description—progressing from good to strong to exemplary practice.

  • Recognize that practice does not exist in a vacuum—all leaves must align so that young people thrive.
  • Identify opportunities and priority actions.
  • The leaves give guidance for improving practice, but they are not a formal assessment or evaluation tool.

Questions, considerations, and action items for an agency/organization to explore to determine if their practices promote and advance thriving.

Anyone who wants to explore the many areas that impact practice and to identify opportunities to help young people thrive. Individual workers* can use the Matrix to improve their own practice. Organizational transformation must come from an agency’s buy-in and leadership’s commitment to change.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

Youth Thrive Basics

Youth Thrive is:

  • A research-based approach to promoting and supporting healthy development and well-being in all adolescents and young adults, ages 9-26 years old.
  • Grounded in the research on resilience, positive youth development, neuroscience, and the impact of trauma.
    • The research led to the identification of five Protective and Promotive Factors that promote well-being and reduce risks:
   Icon Spring Youth Resilience
Icon Brain Knowledge of Adolescent Development
Icon People Social Connections
Icon Hands Concrete Support in Times of Need
Icon Comments Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence

Youth Thrive advances practices and approaches that create opportunities for positive experiences, learning, supportive and transformative relationships, and healing.

Youth Thrive Theory Of Change

Click to enlarge the Youth Thrive Theory of Change

The Youth Thrive Framework Theory of Change provides a clear and compelling way to think about what youth need in order to thrive by showcasing the five protective and promotive factors that mitigate risks and promote well-being so that all young people achieve dynamic outcomes.

The Youth Thrive Premises are the foundation for this critical work with youth and help staff understand and address the personal and systemic barriers youth face today.

The Youth Thrive Trainings focus on strengthening the capacity of systems to support young people. This includes training various staff members who have direct contact with young people—youth workers,* supervisors, probation, school resource and police officers, service providers—about the protective and promotive factors young people need to thrive and how to apply this new knowledge to their interactions with young people.

For more information about the Youth Thrive Training menu, visit the Youth Thrive Training webpage. To learn more about the Youth Thrive curricula or to schedule a training, email YouthThrive@CSSP.org.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

The Youth Thrive Survey™ is a valid and reliable youth self-report instrument that measures the presence, strength, and growth of the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors as proxy indicators of well-being.

The Youth Thrive Survey is free and provides an array of data reports that can be used to inform policy and practice decisions and measure positive indicators of well-being for youth and young adults.

The Youth Thrive Survey is available in both English and Spanish. To set up a new account, follow the instructions in the Youth Thrive Survey User Manual. Additional information about the survey is available via the Youth Thrive Survey webpage, the Youth Thrive Survey one-pager, tip sheet for youth-serving professionals, and Using Data from the Youth Thrive Survey to Improve Practice.

If you have any questions about the Youth Thrive Survey, or need support, please complete this questionnaire to request assistance.

External Resources

Below are links to a variety of external resources that encourage and reinforce practices to help young people thrive.

The Youth Thrive Trainings focus on strengthening the capacity of systems to support young people. This includes training various staff members who have direct contact with young people—youth workers,* supervisors, probation, school resource and police officers, service providers—about the protective and promotive factors young people need to thrive and how to apply this new knowledge to their interactions with young people.

For more information about the Youth Thrive Training menu, visit the Youth Thrive Training webpage. To learn more about the Youth Thrive curricula or to schedule a training, email YouthThrive@CSSP.org.

* Throughout the Blueprint, we refer to the “worker.” By “worker,” we generally mean any staff member who directly works with young people and their families. This may include caseworkers, teachers, recreation workers, counselors, advocates, etc.

The Youth Thrive Survey™ is a valid and reliable youth self-report instrument that measures the presence, strength, and growth of the Youth Thrive Protective and Promotive Factors as proxy indicators of well-being.

The Youth Thrive Survey is free and provides an array of data reports that can be used to inform policy and practice decisions and measure positive indicators of well-being for youth and young adults.

The Youth Thrive Survey is available in both English and Spanish. To set up a new account, follow the instructions in the Youth Thrive Survey User Manual. Additional information about the survey is available via the Youth Thrive Survey webpage, the Youth Thrive Survey one-pager, tip sheet for youth-serving professionals, and Using Data from the Youth Thrive Survey to Improve Practice.

If you have any questions about the Youth Thrive Survey, or need support, please complete this questionnaire to request assistance.

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