AVANCE-Houston Building Futures Program Evaluation

Trauma-informed services are needed to improve self-sufficiency, economic stability, and healthy relationships among at-risk, homeless, and incarcerated youth in Harris County, especially those living in areas with high numbers of single-family households, high poverty rates, low educational attainment, high teen pregnancy rates, high incidence of domestic violence, and high involvement with the (juvenile) justice system. AVANCE-Houston's Building Futures program (A-HBF) aims to facilitate successful transitions to adulthood for cohorts of at-risk and homeless youth by offering healthy relationship and marriage education through the Survival Skills for Healthy Families (SSHF) curriculum. Developed by Family Wellness Associates, SSHF is an evidence-based curriculum delivered through a series of workshops that focus on communication skills, conflict resolution, knowledge of the benefits of marriage, stress and anger management, parenting skills, financial literacy, job and career advancement, and relationship skills to improve family and economic stability. AVANCE will offer the curriculum via weekly workshops for youth that take place in targeted high-need areas. AVANCE seeks to understand if participation in the A-HBF program is associated with improved outcomes among the target population of at-risk and homeless youth. Additionally, the evaluation will examine how and why participant-level characteristics such as relationship status, life status, and demographics are associated with greater or lesser benefit from A-HBF program participation. This research will provide insights about the SSHF curriculum and its effectiveness for the target population that can be used in the development of future programming efforts.