Building Resilience through Intervention, Direct Guidance, and Empowerment (BRIDGE): A demonstration project to assist youth aging out of foster care in Poland.

Abstract

Building Resilience through Intervention, Direct Guidance, and Empowerment (BRIDGE) is an innovative program designed to prevent homelessness and other negative outcomes among youth aging out of foster care. BRIDGE was pilot-tested on youth aging out of two orphanages in a city in southern Poland in 2009-2012. Youth were recruited at age 17, before aging out at age 18. Quasi-experimental methods were used to evaluate program outcomes among nine BRIDGE clients compared to two matched groups (n = 9 and n = 18) of youth who had recently aged out of orphanages in the same Polish region. Consistent with Hypothesis 1, results of chi-square tests showed that, over an 18-month follow-up period, BRIDGE clients experienced superior housing outcomes relative to both matched groups. Consistent with Hypothesis 2, the results of a between-subjects ANOVA showed that BRIDGE clients received significantly greater income relative to the matched groups. Within-subjects effects of BRIDGE from baseline across 6-, 12-, and 18-month follow-ups were examined with repeated-measures ANOVAs. Consistent with Hypotheses 3-5, results showed that across time BRIDGE clients experienced a general increase in income and decrease in psychological distress (i.e., total distress, obsessive-compulsiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, and paranoia). The study's findings support the further development of BRIDGE and similar programs.