What is Youth Thrive?

FINDLAY — Children are the future, and setting youth up for future success is the goal of the Youth Thrive framework. Organizations in Hancock County use the framework for exactly what the name suggests — to help youth thrive. Developed in 2011 by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Youth Thrive is a research-based framework that helps youth-facing organizations support adolescent development. The framework is focused on five "protective and promotive" factors: youth resilience, social connections, knowledge of adolescent development, concrete support in times of need and cognitive and social-emotional competence. "One of the most critical pieces of the framework is really understanding the importance of social connections," said Zach Thomas, director of wellness and education at the Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services. "As long as a youth has someone or something that they connect to, that can create such a positive outcome and trajectory for them." School districts use Youth Thrive to help develop curriculum for student success. Amazing Shake competitions at Cory-Rawson Middle School are based on the Youth Thrive framework. Students preparing for the competition work on communication skills, eye contact, active listening, leadership skills and time management in class. These skills judged in the competition are based on the "Portrait of a Graduate," a commitment for Cory-Rawson graduates to effectively demonstrate communication, resilience, critical thinking and relationship-building skills. "It's really about taking that framework and thinking it through what you are currently doing," Thomas said. "The concepts and the principles of Youth Thrive are embedded within. So it just really gives language to a lot of those prosocial things that we're already doing with kids." Family Resource Center in Findlay offers a comprehensive training of the Youth Thrive framework to anyone working in youth-facing professions in July. Thomas is one of three instructors in the daylong course. "There is an application for any person that interacts with the youth, whether it's a parent, a professional, a teacher, or law enforcement," Thomas said. "If a law enforcement agent is interacting with youth, maybe they might be focusing on (being) a concrete support and (developing) a positive relationship with a youth," he said. A teacher, on the other hand, serves as a social support or contact for a youth, but they're "going to focus on understanding brain development. So that they're adjusting their teaching strategies to age appropriate or brain development appropriate," he said. The Youth Thrive framework can also apply to parents, Thomas added. "A parent might be thinking, 'I know that a protective factor is making social connections or having social supports, so I want to develop that with my child in a way that's healthy and has boundaries and is reasonable,'" he said. "Or it could be, 'I understand that brain development is important. So maybe I could feel encouraged to take some time to learn about how the adolescent brain develops and how it responds differently to the environment than how I might respond." It all comes down to understanding adolescent development and how a youth responds to their environment. "We reinforce that this is a kind of mind shift in thinking of how we approach our work with kids," Thomas said. "It's most important that it's based on giving youth a voice and choice."