Forging Hopeful Futures to Reduce Youth Violence

Forging Hopeful Futures: A Racial and Gender-Justice Program to Reduce Youth Violence

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.

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.

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