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Field
Abstract
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Before
The paper evaluates a new intervention seeking to address the problem of youth violence. Choose to Change (C2C) is a program that combines trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy with wraparound services. This is the first time that these services are being offered together and rigorously evaluated. C2C will serve 440 at-risk youth during the years 2015-2017 in various neighborhoods of the South Side of Chicago. As there is little definitive evidence on the effectiveness of intensive services programs for high-risk youth, identifying programs that are successful with this population is a key policy priority for many cities across the country.
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After
The paper evaluates a new intervention seeking to address the problem of youth violence. Choose to Change (C2C) is a program that combines trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy with wraparound services. This is the first time that these services are being offered together and rigorously evaluated. C2C will serve at least 570 at-risk youth during the years 2015-2019 in various neighborhoods of the South Side of Chicago, with a possibility for future cohorts. As there is little definitive evidence on the effectiveness of intensive services programs for high-risk youth, identifying programs that are successful with this population is a key policy priority for many cities across the country.
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Trial End Date
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Before
November 30, 2019
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After
March 31, 2021
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Last Published
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Before
January 21, 2018 04:30 PM
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After
September 07, 2018 03:42 PM
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Intervention (Public)
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Before
Children’s Home and Aid (CHA) and Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) have teamed up to provide the new C2C intervention to Chicago youth. YAP will assign each youth an advocate who will interact weekly with the youth in one-on-one and family meetings, as well as recreational groups. The advocate will work with the youth for 12+ hours a week to engage them in pro-social activities and build up the natural supports in their lives. In addition, CHA will provide SPARCS (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress), a group trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. SPARCS is a specific form of therapy that is designed for youth who have been traumatized, and continue to live with high levels of stress. Youth will receive 12-16 sessions of SPARCS aimed at reducing trauma symptoms and improving behavior.
The program is intended for high-risk youth (ages 13-18), and therefore will specifically target youth who are actively gang-affiliated, on juvenile probation, have been found guilty of weapons offenses, are seriously disruptive in school through chronic truancy, serious misconduct or frequent suspensions, or have been direct victims of or witnesses to traumatic violence. Referrals will be received from Chicago Public Schools, the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department, and other agency and community partners that work with youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system and have disengaged from school.
Youth who are randomly selected from the eligible population of referrals and agree to participate in the intervention will receive 5 months of C2C programming. The program will be delivered in four sessions, each lasting five months and enrolling 110 youth at a time. The goal of the C2C intervention is to reduce criminal and violent behavior and improve academic achievement by helping youth stabilize and successfully participate in school, community, and family life.
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After
Children’s Home and Aid (CHA) and Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) have teamed up to provide the new C2C intervention to Chicago youth. YAP will assign each youth an advocate who will interact weekly with the youth in one-on-one and family meetings, as well as recreational groups. The advocate will work with the youth for 12+ hours a week to engage them in pro-social activities and build up the natural supports in their lives. In addition, CHA will provide SPARCS (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress), a group trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy. SPARCS is a specific form of therapy that is designed for youth who have been traumatized, and continue to live with high levels of stress. Youth will receive 12-16 sessions of SPARCS aimed at reducing trauma symptoms and improving behavior.
The program is intended for high-risk youth (ages 13-18), and therefore will specifically target youth who are actively gang-affiliated, on juvenile probation, have been found guilty of weapons offenses, are seriously disruptive in school through chronic truancy, serious misconduct or frequent suspensions, or have been direct victims of or witnesses to traumatic violence. Referrals will be received from Chicago Public Schools, the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department, and other agency and community partners that work with youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system and have disengaged from school.
Youth who are randomly selected from the eligible population of referrals and agree to participate in the intervention will receive 5-6 months of C2C programming. The program will be delivered in six cohorts (to date), each lasting five-six months and enrolling between 60-110 youth at a time. The goal of the C2C intervention is to reduce criminal and violent behavior and improve academic achievement by helping youth stabilize and successfully participate in school, community, and family life. The study may enroll additional cohorts if additional funding becomes available.
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Intervention End Date
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Before
November 30, 2017
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After
March 31, 2019
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Experimental Design (Public)
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Before
Randomized Controlled Trial: For each program cohort of 110, the youth will be randomly selected from a list of at least 220 eligible youth. The Crime Lab will compare the treatment group outcomes to the control group outcomes, looking specifically at arrests, connection to school and/or employment, and academic performance. Given the structure of the referrals and background of our youth, we will stratify (or block) by referral source and neighborhood to improve our treatment effect estimates.
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After
Randomized Controlled Trial: For each program cohort, treatment youth will be randomly selected from a list of eligible youth that were referred to the program. Program providers will then offer the program to those youth randomized to treatment. We will compare the treatment group outcomes to the control group outcomes, looking specifically at arrests, connection to school and/or employment, and academic performance. Given the structure of the referrals and background of our youth, we will stratify (or block) by referral source to improve our treatment effect estimates.
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Randomization Unit
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Before
Eligible youth were randomized at the individual level and stratified by referral source and neighborhood.
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After
Eligible youth were randomized at the individual level and stratified by referral source.
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Planned Number of Clusters
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880 youth
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After
1740 youth
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Planned Number of Observations
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880 youth
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After
1740 youth
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Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
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Before
440 treatment youth, 440 control youth at a minimum. Depending on take-up, more will likely be offered treatment.
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After
About 870 treatment youth, 870 control youth, but this depends on take-up and how many youth need to be offered/randomized to the program to reach the needed cohort size.
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Keyword(s)
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Education
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After
Crime Violence And Conflict, Education
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Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
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Before
We plan to investigate total arrests as well as arrests broken down by certain categories such as violent, property, drug, or "other". This other category might be further categorized if it makes up a majority of arrests. We will use techniques such as factor analysis to further sub-divide categories.
if available, we will obtain data from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to explore how the program impacted public benefit enrollment (such as SNAP, medicaid, etc).
If possible, we will work with the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to explore the impact of the program on enrollment in summer employment programs in Chicago.
Lastly, if given permission, we will explore the long-run impact of this program (5-10 years post). This would involve looking at some of our primary outcomes for a longer time horizon (adult employment, adult arrest outcomes) and exploring new outcomes such as enrollment in college through the National Student Clearinghouse.
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After
We plan to investigate total arrests as well as arrests broken down by certain categories such as violent, property, drug, or "other". This other category might be further categorized if it makes up a majority of arrests. We may use techniques such as factor analysis to further sub-divide categories.
if available, we will obtain data from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) to explore how the program impacted public benefit enrollment (such as SNAP, medicaid, etc).
If possible, we will work with the Department of Family and Support Services (DFSS) to explore the impact of the program on enrollment in summer employment programs in Chicago.
Lastly, if given permission, we will explore the long-run impact of this program (5-10 years post). This would involve looking at some of our primary outcomes for a longer time horizon (adult employment, adult arrest outcomes) and exploring new outcomes such as enrollment in college through the National Student Clearinghouse.
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