Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Proponte Más project identified and worked with 800 families and their youth ages 8 to 17 who were empirically at the highest risk of joining gangs. Using the Youth Service Eligibility Tool (YSET), youth were evaluated based on a series of nine risk factors at a family, peer and individual level domain.
Based on evidence and proven success, Proponte Más built on Creative’s USAID-funded Proponte pilot, which reduced youth risk factors significantly at the end of the one-year period, including a 77 percent drop in the crime and substance abuse risk factor and a 78 percent drop in antisocial tendencies.
Using a family-centered approach, Proponte Más trained and certified 50 family counselors to work in close partnership with the families of high-risk youth to establish positive relations and behaviors to lower the youth’s risk factors.
The project also reached an additional 500 to 700 youth at an even higher level of risk—first time or nonviolent juvenile offenders—with targeted support to improve their chances of reintegration after a period of incarceration.
Working along with Creative were international and local organizations with expertise in evidence-based secondary prevention, alternative justice and place-based strategy implementation. These groups included Arizona State University, the University of Southern California, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras, Casa Alianza Honduras and Centro de Prevención de la Violencia.
