Opportunities Beyond the Narrative: An Intervention for Justice-Involved Youth

Summary

WestEd and its partners Urban Strategies, the Los Angeles County Probation Department, Boys Republic, California Family Life Center, and Eggleston Youth Centers Inc. are conducting a quasi-experimental design to evaluate an innovative teen pregnancy prevention program, Project With, for incarcerated and other justice-involved youth in Southern California. Project With is a 12-lesson literary-based curriculum that utilizes group discussions of literary works and films to address personal relationships and sexual health topics. This study involves youth (age 15-19) at high risk for involvement in risky sexual behaviors, including teen pregnancy. The intervention shows potential to promote optimal health and reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among incarcerated and other justice-involved youth, based on a previous formative evaluation of the intervention in 2018-2020. The purpose of this study is to test the curriculum on a population of incarcerated and other justice-involved youth.

Conditions

• Study Will Examine the Impact of Project With

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Project With

There are 12 lessons in Project With, typically delivered in six weekly sessions, with each session having two one-hour long lessons and a meal with facilitators in between the two lessons. Each lesson includes a discussion of selected literary works, including poetry, short stories, and excerpts from films and other videos. The curriculum is intended to be delivered to groups of 8-12 youth. In ideal program delivery, participants also share a meal with each other and with the Youth Advocate. Shared mealtimes create group cohesion and allow Youth Advocates to connect with participants on a personal level, building trust. At the end of the Project With curriculum, youth will partake in an offsite day excursion to Camp Eaton, a wooded camp outside of Los Angeles. At Camp Eaton, Youth Advocates will lead a Project With session, lunch, bonding activities and games, and an opportunity to engage in an outdoor activity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Urban Strategies

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Department of Health and Human Services

  collaborator FED

• WestEd

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Jonathan Nakamoto, PhD · WestEd

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

15 Years

Max Age

19 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-02-01

Primary Completion

2023-12-31

Completion

2024-07-15

Countries

• United States

Study Locations