Future Leaders Program: Testing a Youth Leadership, Engagement, and Mindfulness Program

Can A Youth Leadership and Mindfulness Program Support Well-being in Adolescence?

The current study tests the feasibility and effectiveness of a youth intervention designed to provide meaningful leadership opportunities through the acquisition of leadership skills as well as mindfulness practice, LEAP: Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness.

The goal of this project is to determine whether the Leadership, Engagement, and youth Action Program with Mindfulness (LEAP) curriculum, which was developed with youth, is a feasible and effective intervention for fostering leadership and well-being. The investigators seek to understand whether LEAP can support wellbeing for youth as a strategy to increase youth mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health.

The LEAP study will determine whether a 14-session program designed to provide leadership and mindfulness skills to youth is an effective and feasible intervention. The curriculum consists of 14 two-hour sessions delivered after school. The comparison group will take part in EnvisionIT, a college and career readiness program designed for students in grades 6 through 12. EnvisionIT aims to prepare students with essential skills including digital literacy, and college and career readiness. The comparison group will also have 14 two-hour group sessions. Both LEAP and EnvisionIT will be delivered by trained facilitators. All participants in LEAP and EnvisionIT will be assessed at four time points; facilitators will also complete interviews post-intervention and provide feedback on data fidelity and acceptability following each session. This record reports on the UH3 phase of the grant.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adolescents ages 14 and older in grades 9-12 during the Fall/Winter or in grades 9-11 during the Spring
• Enrolled in a partner site in Massachusetts or Illinois
• Adolescents are only included with parent consent and youth assent if they are under the age of 18. Adolescents at least 18 years old can provide consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• They participated in the pilot phase (UG3)
• They cannot commit to participation in the full study (e.g., attendance at all intervention sessions)
• They are not in grades 9-12 at a partner site
• Parent/guardian has a preferred consent language other than English or Spanish.