#psussw

This brief shares best practices learned on the Project Futures research study being conducted at Portland State University and local community colleges in Portland, Oregon. The study is testing evidence-based mentoring strategies for underserved students, in this case college freshmen with lived experience in foster care and with mental health stressors. Campus-based mentoring is an increasingly popular strategy to better support under-represented students, who in addition to navigating the typical challenges of college life, may face additional barriers to student success, such as: • Homelessness or housing instability and/or financial insecurity with no safety net, • Mental health and trauma, • Starting college academically behind their peers, or • Lack of belonging or difficulty finding ways to engage with peers and community. To learn more about addressing the needs of these under-represented students, Project Futures provided one-on-one near-peer mentoring. This approach is based on previous research1 showing that such students respond well to coaching by near-peer mentors, with similar lived experience, who are trained to help them identify and work towards academic and social goals. 

Abstract: Service providers working with transition-aged young people with mental health disorders require specialized research-based training to better meet their needs. A 10-module interactive online training program, Promoting Positive Pathways to Adulthood (PPPA), was developed to build service provider competencies to improve outcomes for the youth with whom they work. In total, 19 organizations participated in a longitudinal quasi-experimental study that compared training outcomes for participants receiving PPPA online training only (Group 1) with those receiving PPPA online training with team-based practice activities (Group 2). Most of the 63 service providers participating in the training were females, below 40 years, had at least one college degree, and were non-Hispanic White. Both groups made significant gains in their transition-related knowledge, and their self-efficacy to provide transition services. Group 2 with additional practice activities achieved significantly higher knowledge scores than Group 1 receiving online-only training. Team-based activities evaluated by Group 2 participants as more engaging and culturally relevant were also rated as more likely to help improve practice. Future research is needed to track youth outcomes after service provider training, and to examine the organizational supports necessary to promote knowledge translation for transition service providers.

Understanding the outcomes of strengths-based programs requires a better understanding of the extent to which programs actually provide services that are consistent with this model. To this end, we have developed the Strengths-Based Practices Inventory (SBPI). Data collected from two studies of parents participating in either an early childhood prevention program or family support program indicated that the SBPI has 4 related factors: (a) identification and use of strengths, (b) cultural competency, (c) interpersonal sensitivity and knowledge, and (d) relationship-supportive behavior. The SBPI is sensitive to differences between programs in the extent of strengths-based practice and is related to some expected outcomes, including family empowerment and social support.