NCT05743478

Forging Hopeful Futures to Reduce Youth Violence

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

• Status: Active Not Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 720 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Pittsburgh · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 13 Years – 19 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Detailed 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.

Conditions

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

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Forging Hopeful Futures	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.
BEHAVIORAL	Wellness Check-ins	Individual wellness checks 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.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-07-10
• Primary completion: 2026-07-30
• Completion: 2026-08-30
• First posted: 2023-02-24
• Last updated: 2025-11-05

Locations

2 sites across 1 country: United States