Susan P. Franzen

Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities: Combining Theory and Practice in a Community-Level Violence Prevention Curriculum

This article describes the development and evaluation of an after-school curriculum designed to prepare adolescents to prevent violence through community change. This curriculum, part of the Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES) program, is guided by empowerment and ecological theories within a positive youth development context. YES is designed to enhance the capacity of adolescents and adults to work together to plan and implement community change projects. The youth curriculum is organized around six themed units: (a) Youth as Leaders, (b) Learning about Our Community, (c) Improving Our Community, (d) Building Intergenerational Partnerships, (e) Planning for Change, and (f) Action and Reflection. The curriculum was developed through an iterative process. Initially, program staff members documented their activities with youth. These outlines were formalized as curriculum sessions. Each session was reviewed by the program and research staff and revised based on underlying theory and practical application. The curriculum process evaluation includes staff and youth feedback. This theoretically based, field-tested curriculum is designed to be easily adapted and implemented in a diverse range of communities.

Partnering to Translate Evidence-Based Programs to Community Settings: Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice

Implementing evidence-based programming in diverse community settings is an essential translational research step to make effective programs widely accepted and accessible and thereby improve public health. This process is challenging and complex, yet there are few examples to guide the efforts. The authors present their experience as an example of using a university–community partnership approach to aid in translating an evidence-based program (EBP) into a small community setting as a resource for researchers and community partners wishing to implement evidence-based programming in community settings. The authors review the steps of systematic planning and client needs assessment to decide on an EBP: adapting the EBP to appeal to the community while maintaining program fidelity, building staff and organizational capacity, arranging for implementation and family engagement, and carrying out program evaluation. The study focuses on research-to-practice links and highlights each partner’s role and activities in facilitating successful translation of an EBP to this community setting. The lessons learned and recommendations are also presented. Using partnerships to prepare community-based organizations to implement EBPs is a vital mechanism for bridging the discovery–delivery gap and moving toward real-world applications of research discoveries.

Using Process Evaluation to Strengthen Intergenerational Partnerships in the Youth Empowerment Solutions Program

This study illustrates the utility of process evaluation methods for improving a new violence prevention program, Youth Empowerment Solutions for Peaceful Communities (YES). The YES program empowered young adolescents to plan and complete community improvement projects with neighborhood adult advocates. The process evaluation methods included questionnaires and focus groups with students and interviews with neighborhood advocates. Process evaluation results guided program improvements for the second year. The process evaluation results after the second program year suggested that the program improvements were associated with higher student ratings of program staff and neighborhood advocates. The students and neighborhood advocates reported increased positive experiences after the second program year, but continued to note the challenges of working inter-generationally on community improvement projects.

The Role of Present Time Perspective in Predicting Early Adolescent Violence.

This study investigated the role of present and future time perspectives, and their relationships with subjective norms and beliefs regarding violence, in predicting violent behaviors among urban middle school students in the Midwestern United States. Although present time perspective covaried with subjective norms and beliefs, each made a unique prediction of self-reported violent behaviors. Future time perspective was not a significant predictor when accounting for these relationships. In addition, present orientation moderated the relationship between subjective norms and beliefs and rates of violent behaviors; those with higher present orientations exhibited stronger associations. We replicated this pattern of results in data from new participants in a subsequent wave of the study. Interventions that explicitly address issues related to time perspective may be effective in reducing early adolescent violence.

Youth Empowerment Solutions: Evaluation of an After-School Program to Engage Middle School Students in Community Change:

We report on an effectiveness evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) program. YES applies empowerment theory to an after-school program for middle school students. YES is an active learning curriculum designed to help youth gain confidence in themselves, think critically about their community, and work with adults to create positive community change. We employed a modified randomized control group design to test the hypothesis that the curriculum would enhance youth empowerment, increase positive developmental outcomes, and decrease problem behaviors. Our sample included 367 youth from 13 urban and suburban middle schools. Controlling for demographic characteristics and pretest outcome measures, we found that youth who received more components of the curriculum reported more psychological empowerment and prosocial outcomes and less antisocial outcomes than youth who received fewer of the intervention components. The results support both empowerment theory and program effectiveness.

Measuring the Implementation of Youth Empowerment Solutions.

Scholars have increasingly emphasized the importance of using evidence-based programs to promote health and prevent disease. While theoretically and empirically based programs may be effective in carefully controlled conditions, many fail to achieve desired outcomes when implemented in real-world settings. Ensuring high-quality implementation of health promotion programs is critically important as variation in implementation is closely associated with program effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to present methods used to document and assess the implementation of the Youth Empowerment Solutions (YES) program. We collected process evaluation data on 25 YES groups from 12 schools over a period of 4 years. The evaluation assessed four key aspects of delivery: fidelity, dose delivered, dose received, and program quality. We found wide variations in delivery for some measures, while others were more consistent across groups. These indicators of program delivery provided a strong basis for evaluating program implementation, taking actions to improve it, and ultimately, deepening understanding of program effectiveness. The study suggests a model for using multiple methods to collect and analyze data about aspects of program delivery to guide future implementations.