Translating Research, Best Practices, and Policy Goals into Action
Evelyn Frankford works with organizations of all kinds that help launch youth into successful adult life, convening stakeholders across traditional boundaries and finding practical solutions based on an understanding of federal and state policy goals, often implemented at the local level.
- For example: Research shows how learning and emotion work together in the brain. Evelyn provides technical assistance that helps school-community partnerships act on this research to align mental health and supportive services programs in effective formations. Our article in Journal of Youth Development explains the process.
- Another example: While youth and young adults ages 16-25 with serious mental health conditions face similar developmental challenges as other youth, they experience added obstacles that require specific and inter-disciplinary services. Promising practices all have in common a vision of strength-based interventions and supports to help adolescents acquire skills in key life domains. Evelyn knows these programs and services and how to organize them. For the New York, Massachusetts and Washington DC Departments of Mental Health, her approach has emphasized strengths and assets via education and employment supports. She has conducted focus groups with such youth, who emphasize their desire for meaningful work and adequate income in order to live productively.