Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Mar 11;19(6):3320.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19063320.

A Feasibility Study of the My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) Program for Young People Experiencing Homelessness

Jennifer Cumming  1   2 , Fiona J Clarke  1 , Mark J G Holland  3 , Benjamin J Parry  1 , Mary L Quinton  1 , Sam J Cooley  4
Affiliations

A Feasibility Study of the My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) Program for Young People Experiencing Homelessness

Jennifer Cumming et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) is a positive youth development program for improving wellbeing and social inclusion in young people experiencing homelessness. MST4Life™ addresses a gap in strengths-based programs aimed at promoting healthy and optimal development in vulnerable older adolescents/emerging adults. The program was co-developed with a UK housing service as part of a long-term (>8 years) community−academic partnership. This mixed-methods study describes a key step in developing and evaluating the program: exploring its feasibility and acceptability with 15 homeless young people (Mean age = 19.99 years, SD = 2.42; 60% male, 40% female). Participants experienced 8 weekly sessions within their local community, followed by a 4-day/3-night residential outdoor adventure trip. In addition to their attendance records, the viewpoints of the participants and their support workers were obtained using diary rooms and focus groups. Feasibility was indicated via the themes of attendance, engagement, and reaction. The findings suggested that young people enjoyed and perceived a need for the program, that they considered the program and its evaluation methods to be acceptable, and that both the community-based and outdoor adventure residential phases could be implemented as planned. Minor modifications are needed to recruitment strategies before it is more widely rolled out and evaluated.

Keywords: co-design; community engagement; intervention development; positive youth development; social inequalities; strengths-based.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

St Basils was the community partner in this research and was involved in the development and delivery of the MST4Life™ program. The funders had no role in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Intervention Timeline.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Attendance record during Phase 1 of MST4Life; (b) the total number of sessions attended by each young person.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Pleace N. At What Cost? An Estimation of the Financial Costs of Single Homelessness in the UK. Crisis 2015. [(accessed on 25 January 2022)]. Available online: https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/homelessness-knowledge-hub...
    1. The PLoS Medicine Editors Homelessness is not just a housing problem. PLoS Med. 2008;5:e1000003 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Henry M., Watt R., Rosenthal L., Shivji A. The 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress: Part 1: Point-in-Time Estimates of Homelessness. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Washington, DC, USA: 2017. [(accessed on 23 February 2022)]. Available online: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2017-AHAR-Part-1.pdf.
    1. Medlow S., Klineberg E., Steinbeck K. The health diagnoses of homeless adolescents: A systematic review of the literature. J. Adolesc. 2014;37:531–542. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2014.04.003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Homeless Link Young & Homeless. 2021. [(accessed on 23 February 2022)]. Available online: https://www.homeless.org.uk/facts/our-research/young-and-homeless-research.

Publication types