Youth Thrive

Thousands of direct services workers, supervisors, advocates, and young people themselves have been trained on the Youth Thrive Framework and how to recognize and support the Protective and Promotive Factors. Youth Thrive trainings have been held in dozens of states with representatives from hundreds of agencies and organizations working with young people in communities across the country.

Creating and spreading new training is a top priority for Youth Thrive. Training helps all staff who have direct contact with young people—caseworkers, youth workers, supervisors, probation, school resource and police officers, service providers—learn about adolescence and how to apply new knowledge to their interactions with youth.

Launched in 2020, Youth Thrive U is a national support network for people teaching, training, and implementing Youth Thrive and Families Thrive curricula (This training is provided by Youth in Focus; contact cwilson@yifocus.org for more information). Youth Thrive training products include:

• Youth Thrive Training of Trainers curriculum and modules: a comprehensive curriculum and supporting materials for staff developed in collaboration with Jean Carpenter Williams at the National Resource Center for Youth Services and Frank Eckles at the Academy of Competent Youth Work.
• Resilience Module: provides youth workers with tools and easy-to-implement activities to support resilience skills.
• Cognitive and Social Emotional Development Module: provides youth workers with information and tools to support young people in developing cognitive and social-emotional skills.
• Families Thrive Training: Combines content from Strengthening Families, a protective factors framework for young children (birth through age 8) and Youth Thrive to cover the full child developmental continuum.
• Youth Thrive 4 Youth: an interactive, accessible, and engaging training curriculum created by and for youth.

CSSP reviewed numerous research studies and findings on resilience, positive youth development, neuroscience, and trauma to come up with the Youth Thrive Framework. We synthesized information on what reduces the impact of negative life experiences and what increases the likelihood of healthy development, healing, and well-being and for all youth. Building on that research, the Youth Thrive Framework provides a clear and compelling way to think about what youth need in order to thrive.

The Framework applies to older children, teenagers, and young adults and is relevant to all youth between the ages of 9 and 26 years old The heart of the Framework is five Protective and Promotive Factors that mitigate risk and promote well-being:

1. Youth Resilience: Managing stress and functioning well when faced with stress, challenges, or adversity.
2. Social Connections: Having healthy, sustained relationships with people, places, communities, and a force greater than oneself that promote a sense of trust, belonging, and that one matters.
3. Knowledge of Adolescent Development: Understanding the unique changes and assets of adolescence and implementing policies and practices that reflect a deep understanding of development.
4. Concrete Support in Times of Need: Making sure youth receive quality, equitable, respectful services that meet their basic needs (health care, housing, education, nutrition, income), and teaching youth to ask for help and advocate for themselves.
5. Cognitive and Social-Emotional Competence: Acquiring skills and attitudes that are essential for forming an independent, positive identity and having a productive and satisfying adulthood.

Partners

We work closely with six jurisdictions that are implementing the Youth Thrive Framework:

• New York City Department of Probation
• New Jersey Department of Children and Families
• Georgia Department of Human Services
• Nebraska Children and Families Foundation
• Vermont Department of Children Services and the Coalition on Runaway and Homeless Youth
• Brevard Family Partnership

Exemplary Initiatives

• Anu Family Services
• Seneca Family of Agencies
• Youth Villages
• St. A’s
• The Ackerman Institute for the Family
• Center for Foster Success at Western Michigan University
• FAME at Michigan State University
• My Life program at Portland State University
• Foster Ed
• MAAC/EmpowerMEnt
• Youth Advisory Board at the Pennsylvania Child Welfare Resource Center
• Phillips Family Partners

Training Partners:

• Frank Eckles at the Academy of Competent Youth Work
• Jean Carpenter Williams at the National Resource Center for Youth Services
• Wyman Institute in St. Louis
• Cindy Williams at Youth Catalytics

Youth and Young Adult Partners:

• Elevate
• Foster Youth in Action
• Bravehearts
• Westchester, NY

Research Partner:

• Metis Associates

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. Designed with significant input from youth and young adults and taking less than 15 minutes to complete, the survey can be an effective tool for informing case planning and practice, evaluation, and continuous quality improvement (CQI) purposes. 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. Learn more in our one-pager.

Existing Survey participants may log in here. 

Click here to access the Youth Thrive Survey User Manual. Find a tip sheet for youth-serving professionals to understand the relevance of the Youth Thrive Survey and how it can best help young people.

Click here to view a tutorial on using the Survey Instrument for Organizational Admin. 

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

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To obtain a log in, please click one of the following links:

Organizational User Registration

Independent User Registration

 

The purpose of this Coaching Tool is to give supervisors key questions, guidance, and ideas about how to help workers assess and support Protective and Promotive Factors with youth. It reinforces and puts into action the Youth Thrive Framework and training content. See the sidebar (to the right on this page) for guidance on using the Coaching Tool and other related materials.

Click here to access the Coaching Tool.

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.

Access the Youth Thrive Blueprint here.