Powering the Future
Teen FAST is our program for high school-aged youth. It includes an 8-week course on building success factors in pre-adult youths in a unique process that encourages development and leadership. In this model, youth rather than parents are approached and become interested in the program. They recruit a parent or a mentor, and work within the process to create a community of support for their needs. As with all of our FAST programs, Teen FAST includes an ongoing mutual support community involvement phase where kids meets regularly for two years.
Each parent and family faces unique challenges, and all teens have their own set of concerns as well as resiliency factors. We help kids inventory their strengths, and learn how to build a life plan through a process on interaction and value assimilation. FAST helps teens remove uncertainty and doubt as they build a better future and become leaders in their own right. For families of teens with younger siblings, this program helps shape younger kids by demonstrating leadership and building confidence. In this way, we help teens stay off drugs, involved in school, and ready for their future.
James Truslow Adams
FAST Youth Volunteer
Parents:
- share problem solving with other caring parents
- participate with your kids in family and school management
- help keep kids safe, drug free, and healthy
- help your kids plan for their future
- connect with parents, schools, churches, and community services
Teen:
- take charge of your life
- get help in making good choices about your future
- learn leadership skills and find out how to reach your potential
- avoid hazardous, risky and unsafe choices
- be a role model for peers and younger kids
Educators:
- reach and involve hard to reach parents
- gain school and community support for intervention
- improve the climate of education and campus function
How can I learn more about starting a FAST program?
Law Enforcement:
- maintain relationships with kids and their parents
- build strong neighborhood and school support for protective services
- help keep kids off drugs, away from gangs, and in school
Health Care, Mental Health practitioners:
- helps lead a powerful forum for change and prevention
- keeps teens focused and involved
- adds a valuable model to your service portfolio (providers)
- adds valuable skills to your organization (providers)
- attract funding and awareness (providers)
- meaningful collaboration with community
- gain referrals (providers)
Funders:
- practical, well-supported, recognized program that you can really get behind
- low risk, highly visible results
- low cost-per-family served
- multidisciplinary, holistic approach
- every site and participant is evaluated
- builds community social capital
- Reduced family exposure to substance abuse
- Reduced and avoided instances of family and peer conflict, aggression, neglect or abuse
- Improved family cohesion, communication and support for scholastic performance
- Imposition of impulse control and improved judgment skills for parents and teens
- Alignment of family responsibilities and accountability as teens become young adults
- Parents develop trusting relationship with community social capital and become aware of valuable local services
- Parents support each other as needed and reunite monthly to share learning and personal growth
- Parents assist kids in developing life skills and help plan to overcome life's obstacles
- Reduced stress at home, in school, and improved coping skills in life
- Learn to transition accountability from parents to community
- Increased focus on education and scholastics
- Protection from the influences of unhealthy behaviors and bad peer relationships
- Reduced exposure to aggression and violence
- Increased understanding of rules and norms and how to succeed
- Improved self esteem; refusal skills; developmental assets
- Teens begin to think about the future ant the kind of life they want for themselves
How can I learn more about starting a FAST program?
Program components include:
- Family unit strengthening:
- At-home: family meal cooking
- Family unit bonding and pride exercise
- Welcome & special introductions
- Meal time, personal service, etiquette
- Music, singing & stress reduction
- Parent-led expression - emotion quotient exercises
- Parent-Child
- Undirected play-communications
- Peer time
- Counseled parent group session
- Structured Kids peer & family activities
- Parent education, skills, risk awareness
- Attendance incentives and reciprocity
- Gift lottery; reward for trust;
- Affirmations and closing routine
- At-home activities and exercises
- FASTWORKS 2-year mini-community interaction
- Teens enroll in open enrollment sessions and recruit each other. Schools may help select prospective participants
- Parents are recruited by their kids enroll through outreach programs and open enrollment.
- After being shown the program content, parents who commit to FAST meet together weekly for eight weeks.
- Each session lasts approximately 2½ hours.
- FAST programs are typically held in primary school gymnasiums or libraries, community centers, CBO facilities.
- Program cycles conclude with graduation ceremonies.
- After graduation, parents and teens continue to meet, collaborate and support each other for mutual benefit
- Parent member (preferably FAST graduate)
- School representative (guidance, teacher)
- Mental health or AODA specialist
- Law enforcement officer
- Teen advocate
- Other community or faith based agency representative
We thoroughly train FAST teams and coach them through the process of delivering this exciting and absorbing program.
How can I learn more about starting a FAST program?
- 90% retention and graduation rate for families in the program
- 85% rate FAST as beneficial or highly beneficial to parents and kids
- School administrators and teachers notice a change in behaviors of FAST teens and their peers
- FAST teens are much more likely to focus on scholastic and social success after taking our course
How can I learn more about starting a FAST program?
Our programs are 100% evaluated, resulting in strong evidence that our program objectives are consistently met. Because our approach is uniquely multidisciplinary, FAST delivers results in children, parents and siblings in ways that offer the best chance for children to receive the attention they need to thrive, even in challenging environments.
- Social Relationships Questionnaire (McDonald, et al, 2002)
- Social Support (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991)
- Personal Effectiveness (Coleman & Karraker, 2000; Sherer, Mercadante, Prentice-Dunn, Jacobs & Rogers)
- Family Environment Scale (Moos & Moos, 1986)
- Stressful Events (Coddington)
- Coping with Stress (Moos, 1993)
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997)
- Substance Use Questionnaire (Brown, et al., 1997)
- School Behavior (Univ. Wisconsin B.O.R., 1999)
- Self evaluation (FST QA: all cycles)
- Trainer evaluation (FST QA: new sites & teams)
- Social Relationships Questionnaire (McDonald, et al, 2002)
- Social Support (Sherbourne & Stewart, 1991)
- Parent Involvement in Education (Epstein & Salinas, 1993)
- Personal Responsibility of FAST teen
- Personal Effectiveness (Coleman & Karraker, 2000; Sherer, Mercadante, Prentice-Dunn, Jacobs & Rogers)
- Self-Efficacy Scale (Sherer, et al., 1983)
- Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1997)
- Substance Use Questionnaire (Brown, et al., 1997)
- Family demographics
How can I learn more about starting a FAST program?
| Description | Cost |
|---|---|
| Training, per team* | $3,900 |
| Evaluation report, per cycle: | |
| First Cycle | $1,000 |
| Subsequent Cycles (includes licensing & registration) |
$1,125 |
| Aggregate report for 2 cycles: | $1,775^ |
| Aggregate report for 3-12 cycled: | $2,500^ |
| Technical Support | see Client Services Representative for free, customized detailed budget |
| Staff Time | see Client Services Representative for free, customized detailed budget |
| Activity costs | see Client Services Representative for free, customized detailed budget |
| Training travel | see Client Services Representative for free, customized detailed budget |
| Teacher curriculum cost | None! Our program is extracurricular |
* Curriculum included for reuse in licensed sites only.
^ Can be same semester, different sites, or different semesters, same site.
Please contact us for volume discounts