The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announces the availability of "Families and Schools Together: Building Relationships." This 19-page Bulletin was written by Lynn McDonald, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Center for Education Research, and Heather Frey, a Senior Writer/Editor with OJJDP's Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse.

Youth at risk of adolescent delinquency often come from stressed and socially isolated families. These children also frequently fail in school and may eventually drop out. This Bulletin profiles a program, Families and Schools Together (FAST), that brings at-risk children and their families together in multifamily groups to strengthen families and increase the likelihood that children will succeed at home, at school, and in the community.

Based on research and family therapy, FAST builds protective factors for children and increases parent involvement with the family, other parents, the school, and the community. In a typical case, the entire family of an 8-year-old male with problem behaviors at home and at school participates in the 8-week FAST program. After completing the program, families move on to 2 years of monthly meetings of a school-based group of FAST families, which provide a strong social network to fall back on in times of crisis.

Evaluations have shown that FAST has a statistically significant positive impact on children and families. Without intervention, the boy in the case described above would be a strong candidate for teenage delinquency and violence. Communities in search of a school-based approach to intervening with at-risk children and their families will find this Bulletin of great interest.

Resources:

"Families and Schools Together: Building Relationships" (NCJ 173423) is available free from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse (JJC) in a medium to suit your needs. Please use the document number when ordering. Hardcopies can be ordered by sending an e-mail request to puborder@ncjrs.org or writing JJC at P.O. Box 6000, Rockville, MD 20849-6000. You may also call JJC at 800-638-8736 to speak with a publications specialist to request that the document be mailed to you.

This Bulletin is also available online at http://www.ncjrs.org/jjdp.htm#173423. For full-text publications, information on OJJDP or JJC, and other juvenile justice information, visit the following:

OJJDP World Wide Web page at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org
NCJRS World Wide Web page at http://www.ncjrs.org

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