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First Place For Youth
Jan 27, 2025
At First Place for Youth (FPFY), we’re committed to continually improving our programs to better serve transition-age youth in foster care. Recently, we participated in an innovative project to modify the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) mindfulness curriculum for our Youth Transitions Partnership (YTP) program in Alameda County, California. This five-month effort in 2023 aimed to make our mindfulness component more engaging and relevant to our participants, with the goal of increasing early engagement in the program.
The Need for Change The YTP program blends service coordination, intensive case management, and DBT to improve outcomes for foster youth in areas like housing, education, and social-emotional well-being. However, early engagement was a persistent challenge, and the group hypothesized that the DBT materials might not feel relevant to all participants, leading some to lose interest quickly.
Our Collaborative Approach We contributed to a diverse 14-member advisory group to guide the modification process, including:
This multidisciplinary approach ensured that various perspectives informed our curriculum changes.
Key Modifications The YTP coaching team focused their revisions on three main areas:
Youth Feedback: A Critical Component What truly sets this project apart is our emphasis on youth feedback. We tested both the original and modified curriculum with youth advocates, gathering their insights through focus groups. This direct input from young people with foster care experience was invaluable.
Some key takeaways from the youth feedback:
Ongoing Improvements and Future Plans We’re excited about our commitment to continuous improvement. YTP coaches are:
Looking ahead, we hope to revise participant materials further and potentially modify other DBT skills modules.
Lessons Learned This project has offered us valuable lessons for adapting evidence-based interventions for specific populations:
We’re proud to announce we’re partnering with Santa Clara Department of Child and Family Services to expand our DBT work. As we continue to strive for better outcomes for youth in foster care, we’re proud of our efforts to make our interventions more relevant and effective for the young people we serve. We look forward to seeing how these modifications impact engagement in our YTP program and hope our experience inspires other organizations to undertake similar efforts to improve their services for vulnerable youth populations.
Read the complete report HERE: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/modifying-dialectical-behavior-therapy-mindfulness-curriculum-implemented-transition
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