Challenges for Implementation
Relying on alternatives for treatment that already exist in the community poses a challenge for implementation of the SHIELD model. The development of SHIELD exposed gaps in the services available to youth in Westminster. As the program has evolved, members of the multidisciplinary team have tried to fill these gaps to provide a more complete and coordinated system of services. For example, schools serve as a primary resource for the program, but during the summer months, school-based services like counseling and instruction are not available. To address this concern, the Westminster Boys & Girls Club increased services and resources during summer months and prioritized SHIELD youth based on who had the greatest need for continuing services. Even during the academic year, schools have varying resources for providing services to students. In Westminster, the workload of qualified counselors and school psychologists at the high school level is much heavier than that of their counterparts at the elementary or middle school level. As a result, high school youth were not receiving the same level of focused preventive treatment as younger students. In response, multidisciplinary team members coordinated to arrange for a supervised counseling intern from the Boys & Girls Club to be assigned to the high school. The school provided space for the intern to meet with SHIELD program youth during school hours. This arrangement helped to fill a gap in service availability for high school youth who were recommended for school-based counseling services. In some cases, meeting needs meant developing entirely new programs. Recognizing the limited resources that were available for leadership development, the Westminster Police Department collaborated with local middle schools to create the Westminster Youth Academy (formerly known as Warner Youth Leadership Academy). This program is a school-based effort to improve academic performance and build leadership and planning skills, thereby enhancing the protective factors in the lives of at-risk youth. An assessment of short-term behavioral and academic outcomes revealed that SHIELD youth who participated in the Academy significantly improved in attendance and grade point average relative both to their own earlier performance and to the performance of a comparison group of nonAcademy students (Wyrick and Kent, 1998). Westminster has not eliminated every deficit in services for at-risk youth. For example, services that target non-English-speaking youth in a culturally appropriate way are still needed, and treatment options for children under age 5 remain limited. Nevertheless, by even identifying needs that it cannot immediately fulfill, SHIELD has allowed Westminster to begin working on solutions for affected youth.| Previous | Contents | Next |
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