Identification of Important Child and Adolescent Problems to be Addressed

Better Futures for Children actively engages school and community stakeholders in identification of important and salient child and adolescent problems to be addressed through dissemination and implementation of evidence based school and after-school programs, interventions and practices. The problems and challenges may include child sexual abuse, school violence, drugs and substance use, exclusion of learners with disabilities, truancy, poor learning outcomes, teenage pregnancy.

Sustained dissemination and implementation of evidence based school and after-school programs, interventions and practices is likely to be assured when school and community stakeholders are actively involved in the identification of problems that they believe are negatively affecting their children and adolescents who are in schools and those out of school. This process promotes a sense of shared understanding of the problems and the importance of disseminating and implementing evidence based programs, interventions and practices to address the problems.

We believe that sustained dissemination and implementation of evidence based school and after-school programs, interventions and practices in schools and in community settings is greatly improved when the school and community stakeholders participartorily identify the problems that affect their children and adolescents and when they collectively and individually commit to and believe that the identified problems can be  addressed through sustained dissemination and implementation of evidence based school and after school programs, interventions and practices.