Choose to Change (C2C)
The Choose to Change (C2C) program combines trauma-informed therapy with wraparound supports with the goal of reducing youth violence while improving educational outcomes outside of an institutional setting.
Challenge
Gun violence disproportionately affects youth and young adults in Chicago’s historically under-resourced neighborhoods. Frequent exposure to violence and trauma can impact youth’s mental health, emotional development, and academic engagement. Ensuring young people in Chicago have access to effective support services such as therapy can be challenging when youth are disengaging from the same institutions likely to provide these supports, such as schools.
Opportunity
C2C seeks to connect with an underserved population of youth who may be facing considerable challenges, including school truancy or criminal justice engagement, and provide a comprehensive set of supports inside and outside of school that seeks to address any barriers and meet basic needs while also building social-emotional skills. Developed by Brightpoint (formerly Children’s Home & Aid) and Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) in 2015, C2C provides trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and intensive mentoring to youth in Chicago’s south and west sides. The Crime Lab and the Education Lab conducted a randomized controlled trial of C2C to determine if C2C can effectively reduce violence and criminal justice involvement overall and increase education engagement.
Project overview
In response to a 2015 Design Competition, as part of an initiative launched by the University of Chicago Crime Lab and Education Lab to crowdsource youth violence prevention interventions from across the city, Brightpoint (formerly Children’s Home & Aid) and YAP jointly created C2C: Your Mind, Your Game. C2C is a six-month intervention offering youth intensive wraparound and mentoring services that focus on addressing each young person’s specific needs, along with trauma-informed CBT that helps youth process their trauma and develop a new set of decision-making tools.
Youth in the C2C program receive intensive mentoring from advocates from Youth Advocate Programs. Advocates are professionally trained mentors who come from backgrounds and communities similar to those of the youth they mentor. This allows them to develop strong personal relationships, which are crucial for engaging youth in all aspects of the program. In addition to the mentoring relationship, Advocates provide wraparound support for youth and their families/caregivers in the participants’ homes and communities. This includes a broad spectrum of services, from helping youth obtain basic necessities to motivation and direction on larger goals, such as employment and college. On average, Advocates dedicate eight hours a week to supporting a young person.
Years Active
2015 – present
Topics
Project Leads
Heather Bland
Research Manager
Kelly Hallberg
Scientific Director, Inclusive Economy Lab; Senior Research Associate, Harris School of Public Policy
Monica Bhatt
Senior Research Director
Nour Abdul-Razzak
Research Director, Inclusive Economy Lab
Choose to Change Research Brief
Learn more about the Choose to Change evaluation in this research brief.
Throughout the six-month program, youth are connected to clinically trained therapists from Brightpoint who lead 12-16 group trauma-informed CBT sessions. This therapy is based on an intervention called SPARCS (Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress). The therapy aims to help youth regulate their emotions and understand how past traumatic experiences or chronic stress can impact their thinking and behavior. Through exercises and conversation, youth learn to challenge unhelpful thinking, develop more resilient coping mechanisms to address stressors, and enhance their problem-solving and communication skills.
In 2015, the Crime Lab and Education Lab initiated a large-scale randomized controlled trial to answer a crucial policy question: Whether intensive support services, combined with trauma-informed CBT, can effectively improve outcomes for youth dealing with many intersecting challenges like school truancy and involvement in the justice system. From 2015 to 2019, 2,074 youth were randomized to treatment and control groups, with 1,052 offered the C2C program, and 657 youth taking-up C2C services (a 62% take up rate).
With support from Chicago Public Schools, the C2C program has continued to scale and serve young people. Additionally, YAP and Brightpoint expanded the program to four Chicago community-based organizations to deliver C2C-informed programming.
Project Partners
Brightpoint
Youth Advocate Programs, Inc.
Chicago Public Schools
Related News
How to End the Cycle of Violence in Chicago
Public policy professor and New York Times contributor David L. Kirp discusses the Crime Lab and Education Lab’s evaluation of Choose to Change (C2C), a program implemented by Youth Advocate Programs (YAP) and Brightpoint (formerly Children’s Home & Aid) that provides mentoring and therapy to disrupt the cycle of violence in Chicago.
Choose to Change program supporting high-risk CPS students expands to Bronzeville, Humboldt Park
The Choose to Change program’s expansion to Bronzeville and Humboldt Park is highlighted in this article.
Centering Youth in Community Violence Interventions as Part of a Comprehensive Approach to Countering Gun Violence
Preliminary findings from our evaluation of the Choose to Change program are referenced in a this Center for American Progress article authored by Terrell Thomas and Rachael Eisenberg.
