Impact of a Family and School Based Prevention Program on Protective Factors for High Risk Youth

SUMMARY The paper presents an overview of a multifamily based prevention program for at-risk youth, Family and Schools Together (FAST) and results of research conducted on program outcomes. Results are presented on three different phases of a research design, post, 6 month and 2 year follow ups. These data suggest that FAST is effective from pre- to post-participation in increasing both child functioning and family cohesion. The data suggest a strong correlation between the protective factors for strengthening and empowering families, parent involvement in their child's schooling, and reports of child functioning, suggesting that as the parent's involvement increases, their child's functioning also improves. Unanticipated outcomes of the current implementation of the FAST program included the generalization of increased parent self-esteem to greater empowerment in community activities and the discovery of a high level of effectiveness of FAST parent graduates as program facilitators.