Assignment task:
Agency Selection
The National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) was founded in 1978 and has served families in Broward County, Florida, since 2008 (Florida National Youth Advocate Program Services, n.d.). It is a private, not-for-profit youth advocacy organization. This agency drew my interest due to its strong emphasis on supporting children through values such as empowerment and social inclusion. The NYAP offers a variety of programs designed to fulfill its mission of serving as an instrument of compassion and change in the lives of children, youth, and families.
Program overview
One of its key services, Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT), is designed for families experiencing behavioral challenges among youth between the ages of 6 and 18 (Florida National Youth Advocate Program Services, n.d.). Families may receive therapy in their home, at an office, or within the community, depending on their needs. The primary goal of BSFT is to modify patterns of family interaction that enable or reinforce problematic adolescent behaviors (Szapocznik et al., 2012). Need Assignment Help?
Logic Model information
Inputs that support this program likely include monetary donations, volunteer time, trained staff, professional development and training resources, facilities, service materials, marketing support, and community partnerships. The specific BSFT activities are organized into four domains: joining, tracking and diagnostic enactment, reframing, and restructuring interventions (Szapocznik et al., 2012). Measurable outputs of the program include the number of families served and the number of therapy sessions completed. Outcomes can be observed across different time frames. In the short term, participants demonstrate reduced negative attitudes and improved family communication, while over time, they develop stronger conflict resolution, problem-solving, self-identity, and self-control skills, and in the long term, these improvements contribute to decreased substance use and healthier peer relationships.
Ethical considerations
The ethical evaluation of BSFT centers on maintaining client confidentiality through the use of de-identified data, secure data storage, and restricted access. Guided by the ethical principles of respect, beneficence, justice, integrity, and responsibility, the evaluation process upholds fairness, minimizes harm, and ensures transparency (American Psychological Association, 2017). Potential ethical concerns include conflicts of interest or the discovery of sensitive family issues during evaluation. These concerns are addressed through full disclosure, evaluator objectivity, and adherence to mandated reporting laws. Overall, ethical practice in BSFT evaluation emphasizes privacy, honesty, and professional accountability.
Missing information
While the NYAP website gives a good overview of the BSFT program, it does not provide details about the specific activities used to run the program or the exact outcome measures used to assess success. To fill in these gaps when developing the logic model, I plan to reference academic literature and program evaluation sources. For instance, the website doesn't mention how many sessions the BSFT intervention includes. Based on existing research, a treatment length of 12 sessions, with retention defined as families attending at least eight sessions, will be used in the model (Robbins et al., 2011; Szapocznik et al., 2012).
References:
American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct.
Florida National Youth Advocate Program Services | NYAP. (n.d.). Florida.
Robbins, M. S., Feaster, D. J., Horigian, V. E., Rohrbaugh, M., Shoham, V., Bachrach, K., Miller, M., Burlew, K. A., Hodgkins, C., Carrion, I., Vandermark, N., Schindler, E., Werstlein, R., & Szapocznik, J. (2011). Brief strategic family therapy versus treatment as usual: Results of a multi-site randomized trial for substance using adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(6), 713-727.
Szapocznik, J., Schwartz, S. J., Muir, J. A., & Brown, C. H. (2012). Brief Strategic Family Therapy: An Intervention to Reduce Adolescent Risk Behavior. Couple & Family Psychology, 1(2), 134-145.