<p> Foster youth, one of the country&rsquo;s most vulnerable populations, are often told that their best chances for escaping the cycles of abuse and poverty in which their families may have been ensconced for generations is through the attainment of a college education. However, thus far, only approximately 3% of this population has succeeded therein. For the past 20 years, scholars attempting to help ameliorate this situation often focused on illuminating the barriers to college entry and retention faced by foster youth. Currently, researchers are beginning to explore whether in addition to overcoming barriers, helping foster youth to target and develop potential internal and external protective mechanisms might also assist them in mediating the negative effects of abuse, neglect, financial instability, mental health problems, lack of academic preparation, and inadequate support systems faced by so much of this population, in order to persist through college graduation. This study looked to provide support for existing hypotheses that protective factors such as self-efficacy and perceived social support may mediate foster youth&rsquo;s college attendance and retention. Building on existing theory, the study additionally investigated whether an evolving construct, self-compassion, was also related to college attendance and retention for foster youth, in a significant-enough way to warrant incorporating self-compassion training skills into independent living skills training programs for teens and young adults from foster care. Hypothesized benefits associated with helping foster youth strengthen internal protective factors were assessed by using survey methodology to measure the extent to which a sample of foster youth in college reported significantly different levels of self-compassion, self-efficacy, and perceived social support than a similar sample of foster youth who did not attend college. The results of the study indicated that college students from foster care reported significantly higher levels of self-compassion and self-efficacy than foster and former foster youth who did not attend college. These results may serve to inform child welfare stakeholders of the potential benefits of including self-compassion training into independent living skills training programs for foster youth, so they may be better equipped to face the challenges of postsecondary education. </p>

<p> The purpose of this project was to write a grant to fund teacher and counseling staff training in mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and provide for subsequent instruction of MBIs within the school context. The host agency is the Windsor Unified School District, located in Sonoma County, California. </p><p> The goals of the program include teaching mindfulness techniques to designated school staff and students, reducing school staff stress, and increasing the social and emotional learning of students. The objectives include delivering a 12-week MBI training to at least 40% of designated school staff in the district, as well as providing an 8-week, 20-minute MBI series taught to students. Program success will be evaluated through pre- and post-testing of school staff and students with respect to their stress levels and social and emotional skills. </p>

<p> The purpose of this proposal was to develop a grant to create a psychoeducation program for individuals and caregivers with traumatic brain injuries that will be applied at The Brian Injury Association of California (BIAC) located in Bakersfield, California. Based on the literature reviewed, a psychoeducation program for individuals and caregivers with traumatic brain injuries has a strong potential to promote the message of healthy living to BIAC clients. The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation was selected as the potential funding source. Submission and/or funding was not a requirement for the successful completion of the project.</p>

<p> Evidence Based Practices (EBPs) in schools show promise in meeting the behavioral health needs of urban students, however there are multiple barriers to implementation. Providers&rsquo; attitudes towards EBPs may be one of these barriers. Through a cross sectional survey design, this dissertation answers four major research questions: 1) Is the EBPAS-50 an appropriate tool to use with school based behavioral health providers, 2) Do attitudes vary depending on level of experience (student vs. professional), 3) Do attitudes vary depending on a practitioners&rsquo; hire status (school-hired vs. non-school hired), and 4) Do EBPAS-50 scores predict implementation of EBPs? Participants were 160 school behavioral health providers who provided at least one hour per week of direct or indirect services within the Boston Public Schools. Results indicated that the factor structures for the EBPAS-50 and EBPAS- 15 did not hold with this population, however the EBPAS-15 was used for further analysis as it has been validated many times since its introduction. Using the EBPAS-15: 1) graduate students reported more positive attitudes than professionals, 2) school-hired providers reported more positive attitudes than non-school hired providers, and 3) there was no correlation between attitudes and use of EBPs. Though differences may have been statistically significant, it is questionable as to whether these differences are practically significant as the average, rounded, response from providers indicated that they agreed with EBPs to &ldquo;a great extent&rdquo;. This suggests need for ongoing research to identify: 1) aspects of evidence based practices that are important to school-based providers, and 2) a revised tool to measure the attitudes of school-based providers towards EBPs.</p>

<p> The child welfare social workers&rsquo; professional responsibility is to provide services to families and children who have experienced multiple problems of maltreatment such as sexual, general, physical or emotional abuse. The constant indirect exposure to trauma clients includes an inherent danger of significant emotional, psychological and social changes in the social worker. When social workers are dealing with multiple responsibilities at one time, it is possible for symptoms of Compassion Fatigue (CF), Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) and Burnout to go unnoticed. Therefore, this curriculum provides awareness training on CF, STS and burnout for child welfare social workers. The thesis curriculum offers an introduction to CF, STS and burnout to social workers, as they continue to provide services to clients.</p>