Justice-involved youth is a population that is found to be burdened with poverty, community violence, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Becoming involved with the justice system as a minor increases the likelihood for additional adversity, such as further traumatization, adult incarceration, mental health and substance abuse issues, chronic disease, and early death (Aazami et al., 2023; Baglivio et al., 2014; Dadi, 2017; Dierkhising, 2013; Felitti et al., 1998). In Alachua County, the number of adolescents becoming involved with the justice system is on the rise (FLHealthCHARTS, n.d.), leading many children to continue a life of distress and hardship. Considering this, we propose the establishment of the Strengthening of Adolescent Resilience (SOAR) program. SOAR is a trauma-informed intervention that seeks to address and prevent traumatization among disadvantaged youth who are at risk for justice involvement. In action, SOAR expels a team of highly equipped social workers that will work within the schools of Alachua County’s most impoverished areas. While working within the school, the social workers will target and serve adolescents who have been exposed to ACEs and are currently at-risk for becoming involved with the justice system. SOAR takes a strengths-based approach to trauma, as it seeks to build upon adolescents’ protective factors by connecting them to resilience-building community resources located within Alachua County. SOAR seeks to foster resilience in disadvantaged youth in order to prevent juvenile justice-involvement.
Levels of the Social Ecological Model
The McLeroy et al. (1988) Social Ecological Model (SEM) will serve as a foundation for this intervention. The levels of the McLeroy et al. (1988) SEM that this intervention will specifically intervene upon are individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community. This intervention addresses the individual level by identifying an adolescent’s ACE exposure, justice-involvement risk, and protective factors; these will all be used to develop an individualized treatment plan for adolescents. This intervention addresses the interpersonal level by involving participation from the youth’s teacher and parents/guardians. This collaborative involvement aims to strengthen the existing relationship the youth has with their parents/guardians. This intervention addresses the organizational level by providing trauma-informed training for teachers, which will assist in the initiation of a trauma-informed organizational environment within the four identified public schools. This intervention addresses the community level by actively involving community-based organizations to share their expertise, which will hopefully start the initiative to develop a trauma-informed community within Alachua County.
Trauma-Informed Principles Your Grant Will Utilize
SOAR will be implementing and applying multiple trauma-informed principles outlined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (2014). Specifically, SOAR will apply the trauma-informed approach principles of safety, trustworthiness & transparency, collaboration & mutuality, empowerment, voice, & choice, and cultural, historical, & gender issues.
Safety will be incorporated within SOAR by promoting a welcoming and comfortable environment where the youth feels safe to disclose and discuss their lived experiences with their assigned social worker, as well as assuring the youth that they will not be physically taken away or expelled from their home, school, or community. Additionally, safety will be incorporated for social workers by providing safety-ensuring and risk assessment training. Trustworthiness & transparency will be implemented within this intervention by making the treatment plan accessible and fair for the adolescents. Collaboration and mutuality will be enacted within this intervention by giving all members an opportunity to collaborate and be involved at a standard they are comfortable with. Empowerment, voice, & choice will be embraced by giving youth the power to decide if they would like to participate in SOAR and also decide the resilience-building community resources that they would like to be connected with. Cultural, historical, and gender issues will embrace this principle by including adolescents of all races and all gender identities. Additionally, we hope that by employing social workers, who have an educational background involving cultural competency, SOAR promotes an approach to trauma that is unbiased, responsive, and inclusive.
Public Health Framework
SOAR will utilize components from the secondary and tertiary prevention levels of the public health framework. This intervention involves public health components that align with the secondary prevention level, as the intervention includes the screening and identification of ACEs exposure among youth and a connection to the “treatment” of resilience-building community resources for those who have been exposed ACEs (Oral et al., 2015; Scattergood Foundation, 2016). All youth that have been identified for exhibiting at-risk behavior and referred to the social workers will be screened using the PAT. Components of this intervention that align with the tertiary prevention level, involve the development of a treatment plan that has been influenced by the identification of the one or more exposures to ACEs and protective factors among youth who are at-risk for justice involvement (Oral et al., 2015; Scattergood Foundation, 2016). Additionally, this intervention seeks to alleviate the risk of adverse effects from being exposed to ACEs (Felitti et al., 1998) by building resilience in at-risk youth.
References
Aazami, A., Valek, R., Ponce, A. N., & Zare, H. (2023). Risk and protective factors and interventions for reducing juvenile delinquency: A systematic review. Social Sciences, 12(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090474
Baglivio, M. T., Epps, N., Swartz, K., Huq., M. S., Sheer, A., & Hardt, N. S. (2014). The prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders. Journal of Juvenile Justice, 3(2), 1-23.
Dadi, E. (2017, February 13). Community-based treatment more effective, less expensive than incarceration for youth offenders. Florida Policy Institute. https://www.floridapolicy.org/...-for-youth-offenders
Dierkhising, C. B., Ko, S. J., Woods-Jaeger, B., Briggs, E. C., Lee, R., & Pynoos, R. S. (2013). Trauma histories among justice-involved youth: Findings from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v4i0.20274
Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The adverse childhood experiences (ACE) study. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 14(4), 245-258.
FLHealthCHARTS. (n.d). Youths Arrested. https://www.flhealthcharts.gov...aviewer&cid=0546
McLeroy, K. R., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., & Glanz, K. (1988). An ecological perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351-377. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500401
Oral, R., Ramirez, M., Coohey, C., Nakada, S., Walz, A., Kuntz, A., Benoit, J., & Peek-Asa, C. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and trauma informed care: The future of healthcare. Pediatric Research, 79(1), 227-233. https://doi.org/10.1038/pr.2015.197
Scattergood Foundation. (2016). Trauma-informed philanthropy: A funder’s resource guide for supporting trauma-informed practice in the Delaware Valley. https://philanthropynetwork.or...raumaGUIDE_Final.pdf
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA]. (2014). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach. HHS Publication No. (SMA) 14-4884. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Comments (0)