Kareema Nasouf Capstone Project Paper.pdf - LIVE KIND...

LIVE KIND Nasouf 1
Live KIND (Kids Insist No Despair): Capstone Project
Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth
Kareema Nasouf
University of Southern California
Professor Juan Carlos Araque

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Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary 4
Grand Challenge: Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth 4
Project Purpose 4
Wicked Problem 5
Project Methodology 6
Future Actions and Steps 7
II. Conceptual Framework 8
Statement of the Problem 8
Research and Actual Practice 10
Current Means of Addressing the Problem 13
Conceptual Framework, Logic Model and Theory of Change 14
III. Problems of Practices and Solutions 16
Description of Capstone 16
Elements/Components of Intervention 17
Target Population 17
Intervention Setting 18
Capstone Contributions to the Grand Challenge 18
Analysis of Stakeholders 19
History & The Broader Landscape 21
Opportunities for Innovation, Connection to Logic Model and Theory of Change 24
Reasonableness of Success 25
IV. Project Structure, Methodology and Action Components 27
Prototype 27

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Market Analysis 28
Implementation Strategy 29
Financial Plan 30
Assessment of Impact 31
Relevant Stakeholder Involvement 32
Communication Strategy 33
Problems of Practice 35
Ethical Considerations 36
V. Conclusions, Actions, and Implications 37
References 41
Appendix A 48
Appendix B 49
Appendix C 51
Appendix D 53
Appendix E 54
Appendix F 55
Appendix G 57
Appendix H 60

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I. Executive Summary
Grand Challenge: Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth
In the past, the profession of social work mainly dealt with interventions once problem
behavior emerged. However, the power of prevention has become a powerful tool with the
grand challenge of ensuring healthy development for all youth. Unlike in the past when most
programs dealing with youth were reactionary and punitive, there is a current approach towards
using preventative methods to support youth healthy development (Jenson and Hawkins, 2018).
Among the preventative tools used to eradicate unhealthy behavioral issues related to youth
especially within marginalized populations is the inclusion of youth opinions and voices within
the field of social work. Sprague Martinez et al (2018) concluded “ through their engagement,
young people raised new questions, collected and analyzed their own data, and used these data to
inform and influence community initiatives and policy discussions” ( p. 139). The use of youth
voices as a preventative tool have contributed to healthy development and empowered youth to
become invested in their communities and societies. Live KIND is a curriculum that facilitates
opportunities for youth to voice their social emotional concerns and speak openly about mental
health.
Project Purpose
Though the money keeps pouring in for mental health services, teenagers suicide rates
continue to soar and the conversation never involves teenagers (Ho et al., 2017). It is always the
adults doing all the talking and decision making about. The school system in California has
predominantly handled behavior issues with punitive consequences and often does not address
the origins or sources of those behaviors.