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Operation PhoenixImproving resiliency factors of institutionalized youth in emergent and third-world countries.

K. Paige Anderson - Clemson University - Youth Development Leadership

Problem Social violence, child exploitation and

instability increasing across the globe.

Need for orphanages increasing worldwide.

Emergent and third world countries unprepared to address this social need.

Emergent and third world orphanages age out youth unprepared to thrive in society.

Youth return to the streets to contribute to social violence, child exploitation and instability across the globe.

+Literature and DefinitionsResilience

The capacity of individuals to navigate their way to resources that sustain well-being;

The capacity of individuals’ physical and social ecologies to provide those resources; and

The capacity of individuals, their families (caregivers) and communities to negotiate culturally meaningful ways for resources to be shared.

Resilience Research Centre (2009)

+Assumptions

Intervention promoting improved resilience factors and positive youth development is possible (Ungar, 2008; Quinn, 2004).

Resiliency can be encouraged

+Negative or Positive?

Humane social environments for large groups of orphans that foster positive youth development can be intentionally created with VERY limited resources (Wolfe & Fesseha, 1998; Gibbons, 2005).

Positive Youth OutcomesNegative Youth Outcomes Odds are that children and

youth residing in emergent and third world orphanages will experience psychopathology and /or a spectrum of behavior disorders (Sigal, et al, 2003).

+Evidence Based Study

Orphanage residents in emergent and third world orphanages often undergo little study, even though they are an increasing demographic ( Wolfe & Fesseha, 1998).

This study acknowledges the lack of systematic empirical studies assessing the improvement of resiliency factors in emergent and third world institutionalized youth and seeks to fill the gap.

PROVE IT!

Purpose Purpose- To investigate a possible correlation between a 10 week group intervention and increased resiliency scores in institutionalized youth residing at the Davis Lar Orphanage in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Main research questions:

• Will directed group intervention promoting positive youth development and life skills increase individual, relational and contextual resiliency factors in institutionalized youth in emergent and third world orphanages?

• Is it possible to increase resiliency factors in institutionalized youth across cultures?

+InterventionFamily Solutions for Youth at

RiskThrough Family Solutions for Youth at Risk (Quinn, 2004), youth and families gain specific knowledge and skills to reduce the likelihood of repeat juvenile offenses throughout the program.

Operation PhoenixSuch knowledge and skills as promoted in FSP can be applicable to an orphanage setting, without the emphasis on family, but on individual, relational and contextual resiliency. This fits Ungar’s (2004) definition of resiliency as navigation and negotiation.

+Modified FSP Program

Alter chronic conflicting patterns within the family.

Overcome perceptions of hopelessness and sense of futility that results from experiences such as school failure and negative peer involvement.

Children and youth placed in institutionalized care have witnessed and often replicate chronic negative patterns that must be modified.

Through promoting education, positive self-perception, goal setting and church involvement, OP seeks to overcome hopelessness and futility resulting from abandonment and abuse.

Family Solutions for Youth at Risk Operation Phoenix

(Families4Change, Family Solutions Training Manual)

+Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28) Created by an international and intercultural team of

professionals, the CYRM-28 is a proven tool to use in research seeking to better understand functioning of resilience in specific groups of youth, or programming intended to promote positive youth outcomes (Liebenberg, et al, 2011).

Individual, Relational (Caregiver), and Contextual Resilience

Cross cultural validity tested in The Gambia, Russia, Tanzania, India, Northern Canada, South Africa, Israel…..

+How the modified Family Solutions Program relatesto resilience factors as measured by the CYRM-28.

+Subjects

27 institutionalized youth placed at the Davis Lar Orphanage due to abuse, exploitation, abandonment

or neglect.

+Mixed Method Design

Quantitative Measurement Using a pre-test/post-test

design, The Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 developed by Dr. Ungar and the Resilience Research Centre to measure resilience factors in youth across cultures, will assess resilience factors in subjects.

Qualitative Interviews consisting of

catalyst questions and subsequent coding will be used to confirm data analysis and interpretation of quantitative data.

+How the modified Family Solutions Program relatesto resilience factors as measured by the CYRM-28.

Sequential-explanatory mixed method strategy.

+HYPOTHESIS There will be a significant difference in overall

resilience scores based upon pre-test/post test administration of the CYRM-28 quantitative measure. It is also hypothesized qualitative interviews will confirm statistical significance of increased resilience scores.

InstitutionalReview Board Expedited review!! Why?

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ImplicationsIf the results of this study support the assumption

that group intervention can increase resilience factors utilizing very limited resources, a model of group

intervention promoting positive youth outcomes for institutionalized youth across cultures can be developed,

focusing on emergent and third world orphanages.

+Works Cited-Sourced Liebenbeg, L., Ungar, M., & Van de Vijver, F. (2011). Validation of

the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28) Among Canadian Youth. Research on social Work Practice, 000(00), 1-8.

Quinn, William H.. Family solutions for youth at risk: applications to juvenile delinquency, truancy, and behavior problems. New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge, 2004. Print.

Resilience Research Centre (2009). The child and youth resilience measure-28: User manual. Halifax, NS: Resiliency Research Centre, Dalhousie University.

Ungar, M. (2004) A constructionist discourse on resilience: Multiple contexts, multiple realities among at risk children and youth. Youth and Society, 35, 341-365.

Ungar, M. (2008) Resilience across cultures. British Journal of Social Work, 38, 218-235.