Pathways to Success (Pathways)

Youth and young adults aged 14-23 who are aging out of foster care and are at an increased risk of homelessness

For children/adolescents ages: 14 - 23

Pathways to Success is an intensive, youth-driven case management model with the long-term goal of preventing homelessness among youth with foster care experience. The model is built around case managers, called Navigators, who are trained in a case management approach called Engaging Youth in a Coach-Like Way. In this approach, Navigators develop a coaching relationship to support youth. Youth direct the intervention by setting goals related to the outcome areas of housing, education, employment, health and well-being, and permanent connections. Meanwhile, Navigators deploy an individualized services array tailored to each youth’s needs, strengths, and goals. In addition to Engaging Youth in a Coach-like Way, Navigators use a variety of tools and resources to support youth in these domains, such as flex funds and referrals to relevant resources.

Lanae Davis
Center for Policy Research

• https://centerforpolicyresearch.org/pathways-to-success/
• Email: ledavis@centerforpolicyresearch.org
• Phone: (303) 947-7751

The goals of Pathways to Success are:

• Increased likeliness of living in safe, stable housing and reduction in homelessness
• Increased permanent connections with family and community
• Improved physical and mental health and positive outlook on life
• Improved educational attainment
• Increased likelihood of identifying goals to achieve career training, secondary education, or full-time employment

The essential components of Pathways to Success include:

• Assignment of a Navigator for each enrolled young person:
  • Each Navigator carries a small caseload (up to 10 youth for a full-time Navigator) that allows Navigators to provide intensive and consistent (usually weekly) support to youth in their caseload.
• Core Component Used by Navigators – Engaging Youth in a Coach-like Way (EYCLW):
  • A service model adapted from the Co-Active Training Institute’s (Co-Active) coaching model
  • Tailored to meet the unique developmental and logistical needs of youth aging out of foster care and at risk of homelessness
  • Provides a framework of support through which Navigators administer all other components
  • Youth-driven intervention
  • When Navigators act as coaches, they build a supportive relationship with the youth that encourages them to set their own individual goals, plan, and pace.
  • Coach-like engagement is designed to empower youth to be their own advocates
  • The classifications of case management change when Navigators act as coaches.
    • Below are some examples of what providing case management services while engaging youth in a coach-like way might look like in each of the five outcome areas:
      • Housing outcome example activities:
        • Helping the youth look on an apartment-search website
        • Calling potential landlords
        • Furniture shopping
        • Taking youth to complete housing application
        • Filing appeals when a youth is denied housing
        • Helping a youth move
        • Creating a self-sufficiency budget
      • Education example outcome activities:
        • Getting paperwork to verify dependent status to apply for financial aid
        • Installing software to make youth’s computer compatible for online courses
        • Taking youth on a campus tour
        • Attending a graduation ceremony
        • Helping a youth study
      • Employment outcome example activities:
        • Helping a youth find a car so they could get hired for a job
        • Filing taxes with a youth
        • Driving youth to a job interview
        • Reviewing a resume
        • Obtaining vital documents
        • Plan around discussing issues with background checks
      • Health & well-being outcome example activities:
        • Transport to/from a doctor’s appointment
        • Shopping for health insurance
        • Providing a listening ear for youth to vent frustrations
        • Pet shopping
        • Discussing healthy relationships and DV/IPV issues
        • Connecting to mental health resources
      • Permanency outcome example activities:
        • Facilitating family reunification
        • Purchasing a suitcase for a family trip
        • Inviting supportive people to meetings with youth
        • Providing support and company when meeting with family/friends/mentors

• Other components used by Navigators:
  • Crisis stabilization:
    • Occurs when youth enroll in Pathways during a period of crisis
    • Involves utilizing all other components of the intervention to address immediate safety and/or housing needs before the development of goals
  • Goals:
    • Every youth works with the Navigator to develop two or more goals that guide the work they do together
    • The goal-setting process might include the use of a worksheet or be structured as an informal interview about what they would like to achieve before transitioning to independent living
    • Youth set as many goals as desired and can add goals throughout the program
    • Progress toward these goals tracked by the Navigator, who maintains regular contact and guides them through next steps
  • Securing and maintaining safe and stable housing:
    • Examples include:
      • Plan to live with a friend or family member where the Navigator acts as a facilitator for building and maintaining supportive relationships
      • Acquire housing vouchers with Navigator help
      • Find apartment through Navigator connections with landlords or developments that will rent to youth with challenges such as juvenile records, no rental history, low income, or special needs
      • Get support from Navigator in understanding and acquiring the necessary documentation (e.g., letters of reference, making calls for youth) to become a renter
  • Case planning and assessment tools:
    • Used to assess a youth’s needs and opportunities for growth
    • Designed to help Navigators and youth understand what areas of focus a youth most needs to be ready to transition to self-sufficiency after graduation
  • Flex Funds:
    • Each collaborative site provided with flex funds, which can be used to provide immediate financial assistance to youth when all other resources have been tapped, and the youth has an unmet need
  • Referrals:
    • Navigators must be tapped into a wide referral network of partners in the human services field.
    • When a youth has a particular problem or goal, a primary responsibility of the Navigator is to support the youth in identifying solutions and referring them to the appropriate service agencies.
  • Supportive connections with adults:
    • A key indicator of long-term stability is relational permanency—ensuring the youth has at least one supportive adult they can turn to for help when needed.
    • The permanent connection could be a family member, mentor, coach, or support at a community agency.
    • Navigators can foster connections by encouraging the youth to spend time building this connection or by providing a space or hosting an event that facilitates relationship-building.
  • Community connections and other supports:
    • The Pathways model is designed to be short-term and intensive, allowing the youth to graduate and transition to a less intensive care management model for the long term.
    • Navigators must help the youth identify what areas of support exist within the community that youth can use postgraduation.

Child/Adolescent Services

Pathways to Success (Pathways) directly provides services to children and addresses the following:

• Youth and young adults (14-23) aging out of the foster care system

Recommended Intensity

The program is designed to be intensive and short term. The Navigator meets with the youth or young adult as desired by youth, but during the active phase typically meet once a week for up to one hour.

Recommended Duration

Navigators meet weekly with the youth until the youth “graduates” from the program, which tends to be on average 14.3 months. Graduation from the program is decided by the youth and navigator together. There is a graduation checklist provided to help facilitate the discussion of graduation and is available in the intervention manual.

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Birth Family Home
• Community Daily Living Setting
• Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
• Foster / Kinship Care
• Group or Residential Care
• Justice Setting (Juvenile Detention, Jail, Prison, Courtroom, etc.)
• Other
• Public Child Welfare Agency (Dept. of Social Services, etc.)
• Shelter (Domestic Violence, Homeless, etc.)
• Virtual (Online, Smartphone, Zoom, Telephone, Video, etc.)

Homework

Engaging Youth in a Coach-Like Way has an accountability component that is labeled as homework to be completed outside of the coaching session. At the end of the coaching session the young person identifies actions (homework) that they will take before their next coaching session. These actions need to be developmentally appropriate and realistic, and they are intended to support youth in achieving their self-defined goals. Examples of homework/action could include completing 10 job applications, touring an apartment, or getting their Social Security card.

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

The program requires a point person and additional staff who are trained in the Co-Active model of coaching. The point person and staff provide the initial Engaging Youth in a Coach-like Way (EYCLW) training. They also manage and facilitate ongoing monthly coaching cohorts, and regular support of Navigators in practicing EYCLW.

There also needs to be agency staffing necessary to allow Navigators a maximum of 10 active youth on their caseload at any given time.

Additional resources needed include funding to provide flex funds to youth, and referral relationships with community service providers to support youth.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

• Davis, L., & Matyasic, S. (2019). Colorado Pathways to Success intervention manual. Center for Policy Research. https://centerforpolicyresearch.org/pathways-to-success/

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact

Training Type/Location:

Pathways training consists of an initial Engaging Youth in a Coach Like Way training offered by Colorado’s Child Welfare Training System, followed by monthly coaching cohort calls made up of Navigators at each site, and facilitated by a Co-Active coach. It is important to note that there needs to be at least one certified Co-Active coach to help facilitate the trainings, others can obtain training and support the model. Certification requires ongoing active coaching sessions as part of their training.

After the initial training, each navigator receives individual onboarding from a certified Co-Active Coach. There are several fidelity supports offered regularly and include monthly coaching calls, annual site visits, and bi-weekly book clubs to discuss the book offered by the Co-Active Training Institute called, Co-Active Coaching: 4^th edition. Refresher Engaging Youth in a Coach-like way training is also offered on a voluntary basis.

Number of days/hours:

Navigators: The initial training course is 4 days (3 hours per day) totaling 12 hours. Then, there are monthly hour-long coaching cohorts. The book clubs are voluntary, and they are offered bi-weekly for an hour. Refresher training is also 12 hours (4 days and 3 hours a day).

Pathways point person and supporting staff: Training in the Co-Active Model or coaching requires 5 multiday sessions and that training can be found on the Co-Active Training Institutes website (https://coactive.com/) .

“What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?”

• Note: The following studies were not included in rating Pathways to Success on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Preventing homelessness among youth aging out of foster care: Formative evaluation results of a coach-like engagement model. Families in Society, 105(4), 703–715. https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231193272 Preventing homelessness among youth aging out of foster care: Formative evaluation results of a coach-like engagement model. Families in Society, 105(4), 703–715.  https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894231193272

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to measure the feasibility of implementing the Pathways to Success (Pathways) program and its potential for improving outcomes in several key areas. Measures utilized include administrative data from the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services (CDHS) on child welfare involvement, specific experiences within the child welfare system, and youth homelessness. Study-developed measures were also utilized to collect demographic characteristics, foster care history and experiences, measures of educational attainment and employment, readiness for independence, and episodes of homelessness experienced by the youth. This includes the age at the time, reasons for homelessness, duration of the episode, how it was resolved, and resources utilized. Results indicate that findings demonstrate promise that youth-driven, coach-like engagement is effective in reducing homelessness for youth with risk factors and improving outcomes in all key areas. Limitations include the low rate of posttest survey completion, which falls below 50% of the sample at pretest, and the sample of youth enrolled in the study is a non-random convenience sample of youth who received Pathways-only services. Note: This article was not used in the rating process due to the lack of a control group.

• Davis, L., Thoennes, N., & Matyasic, S. (2020). Colorado Pathways to Success formative evaluation final report. Center for Policy Research. https://centerforpolicyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/Formative-Evaluation_FinalReport_September2020_Feb-Edits.pdf
• Prendergast, T., & Davis, L. (2018). Utilizing coaching to prevent homelessness among transition-age youth with foster care histories. Center for Policy Research. https://centerforpolicyresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/RB2_Coaching_Final.pdf
• Shiferaw, M., Fung, N., Islam, N., & Chesnut, K. (2023). Youth At-Risk of homelessness: An early picture of youth and services. Mathematica Policy Research (No. 2023-214). https://acf.gov/opre/report/yarh-early-picture-youth-and-services-descriptive-report