Relationships Matter: Strengthening Vulnerable Youth

From a conference convened in the United States by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Casey), the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC), and the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development, this paper reflects themes emerging from the conference on the importance of relationships for youth and the lack of education on relationship skills to help young people manage intimate partner relationships. "These skills are especially important for youth in vulnerable circumstances such as being low-income, system-involved, runaway/homeless, or disconnected from school or work." The primary objectives of this forum were to find common ground to bring the fields of youth development and relationship education together and identify strategies for action.

"Seven key themes emerged from the conference:

1. Relationship education is essential - Youth leaders and practitioners broadly agreed that the need for relationship education in youth work is apparent.
   
2. Relationship education is a development strategy - Healthy intimate partner relationships can have a positive impact on young people’s lives.
   
3. Defining relationship education - Relationship education is focused on skill building, interpersonal skills, safety, knowing oneself and setting the stage for healthy marriage.
   
4. A holistic understanding of relationship education: benefits and challenges - Relationship education can serve a variety of purposes for youth from equipping them with the skills to have healthy intimate relationships to enhancing their peer and adult relationships.
   
5. Relationship education is not just an outcome - Youth development professionals can model healthy relationships as well as teach relationship skills.
   
6. How do we best deliver relationship education? - Relationship education may be delivered as a curriculum and through an experiential learning model; these strategies may be stand-alone programs or integrated into the spectrum of youth development services.
   
7. Relationship education in context - There is no one-size-fits-all approach to delivering relationship education to youth; the content and service delivery method must resonate with the youth you are trying to reach."
   

"The suggested strategy includes the development of appropriate resources for youth and practitioners; evaluating existing programs; training youth development staff in relationship skills; and researching relationship behaviors and attitudes among vulnerable youth. These actions can help leaders in the youth development and relationship education fields galvanize public will around healthy relationships and relationship education."

Resource development "included trainings, knowledge and position papers, and skill-building sessions that use youth voice. Other potential resources included an interactive, web-based resource, modeled on popular social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. Resources, opportunities or curriculums for college-age young adults surfaced as a potential avenue for relationship education work; it was the feeling among group members that, at this age, young people are particularly open to this kind of knowledge. In all of these resources the power of stories is central. Stories about programs and the youth involved should inform and be a major part of these resources." Leveraging the success of existing programmes may include: integrating healthy relationship language, content, and strategies into current programmes; updating existing curricula; and training staff for programme delivery. Sharing knowledge about the specific needs and trends of disadvantaged youth populations and scanning past and current evaluations that study relationship outcomes, as well as including youth in creating and updating materials, are recommended. The question of pursuing advocacy for public policy was raised, with the following suggestion: "The relationship education field should at least entertain the idea of a national policy and begin to identify the players involved."

“Next steps” from the document are the following:

• "Develop healthy relationship content that is relevant to vulnerable youth’s individual context and update existing relationship education curricula and/or develop resources to reflect modern and realistic relationships and needs.
  
• Frame relationship education as a pertinent issue for larger communities, such as the education, business, or sexual education community.
  
• Research relationship attitudes and behaviors among vulnerable youth.
  
• Identify more avenues by which relationship education can be delivered to large numbers of vulnerable young people.
  
• Train youth development staff in relationship education.
  
• Develop a theory of change for relationship education and more effective indicators and measures for evaluation.
  
• Gather a diverse group of relationship education stakeholders to sell the story to the media and national public.”