Forging Hopeful Futures to Reduce Youth Violence (FHF)

University of Pittsburgh

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Violence, Non-accidental; Communication, Personal; Violence in Adolescence; Violence, Sexual; Violence, Physical; Communication, Social; Coping Skills; Violence, Gender-Based; Adolescent Behavior; Racism

Treatments: Behavioral: Forging Hopeful Futures; Behavioral: Wellness Check-ins

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT05743478

STUDY22080150

R01CE003502 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This cluster-randomized community-partnered study will examine the effectiveness of a racial-, gender-, and economic-justice focused youth violence prevention program called Forging Hopeful Futures with youth ages 13-19.

Full description

This community-partnered cluster randomized trial in 16 neighborhoods impacted by structural inequities and high levels of community violence in Pittsburgh, PA and urban Washington D.C. and Maryland metro areas will evaluate effectiveness of Forging Hopeful Futures with youth ages 13-19. Forging Hopeful Futures combines economic justice content from job readiness training, racial and gender justice content from gender-transformative programming, and leadership building as a novel multi-level violence prevention intervention.

Enrollment: 720 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 13 to 19 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

1. Participants must be ages 13-19 (inclusive)
2. Participants must speak English
3. Participants must live in the participating neighborhoods, attend schools in the participating neighborhoods, or use participating facilities
4. Participants must be able to provide follow up contact information

Exclusion criteria

1. Not ages 13 -19 (inclusive)
2. Do not speak English
3. Do not live in the participating neighborhoods, attend schools in the participating neighborhoods, or use participating facilities
4. Unable to provide follow up contact information

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

720 participants in 2 patient groups

Forging Hopeful Futures

Experimental group

Description:

Forging Hopeful Futures uses a group discussion format with activities that explore race, gender, class, identity, relationships, and multiple forms of violence. Forging Hopeful Futures is a 12 session curriculum for youth ages 13-19 that uses strengths-based and healing-centered approaches to critically examine structural forces that perpetuate racial and gender injustice, develop leadership skills in promoting gender equitable relationship norms, non-violent practices, and upstander skills, and enhance economic justice through job skills and employment opportunities. Through 12 sessions (3 hours/session) over a 6 to 12 week period, Forging Hopeful Futures combines racial, gender, and economic justice content with leadership development and workforce development opportunities.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Forging Hopeful Futures

Wellness Check-ins

Active Comparator group

Description:

Youth in neighborhoods randomized to the control group will receive individual wellness checks. This will occur through a strengths-based telephone conversation focused on wellness resources. Youth will be provided with tailored resources based on needs identified during the call. Youth will be offered the option for additional phone check-ins to coordinate access to community resources and connection to individualized behavioral health supports if desired.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Wellness Check-ins