This article introduces a framework called "HOPE: Health Outcomes From Positive Experiences." The HOPE framework focuses on the need to actively promote positive childhood experiences that contribute to healthy development and well-being, as well as prevent or mitigate the effect of adverse childhood experiences and other negative environmental influences. Key positive childhood experiences fall within 4 broad categories: being in nurturing, supportive relationships; living, developing, playing, and learning in safe, stable, protective, and equitable environments; having opportunities for constructive social engagement and connectedness; and learning social and emotional competencies. The HOPE framework grows out of and complements prior holistic approaches to child health care.

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Youth Thrive Origins and Framework Helping youth realize their dreams while also keeping them safe and attending to their physical and emotional needs is the goal for all parents. Balancing dreams and needs also defines the role of those working with youth in the child welfare system. In 2011, the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) began an effort to reverse the troubling outcomes that many young people in the foster care system experience (Courtney, 2009) and to capitalize on the inherent strengths that exist in these youth. CSSP is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving life chances for our country's most vulnerable children, youth, and families and has a long history of working with child welfare systems to produce better results. CSSP's interest in creating a youth development agenda coincided with several other important changes: breakthroughs in the field of adolescent brain development, the passage of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act 1 in 2008, and the federal call for child welfare agencies to elevate their focus on child and youth well-being, in addition to safety and permanency. Recently there has also been a growing belief in communities and among child welfare and youth services experts as to the value of practitioners dealing with both risk factors that compromise a child's life prospects (e.g., family violence) and protective and promotive factors (e.g., resilience, social connections) that minimize risk and advance well-being (Epstein, 2004). By drawing attention to the importance of balancing attention to risk reduction with that of the promotion of health, the Youth Thrive Framework is consistent with the tenets

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This article describes the background, development, and validation of the strengths-based, youth-driven Youth Thrive Survey which measures the 5 protective and promotive factors delineated in the Youth Thrive Framework; specifically: youth resilience, social connections, knowledge of adolescent development, concrete support in times of need, and cognitive and social-emotional competence. Draft instruments were created that included new items and adapted items from existing validated instruments. Revisions were based on feedback from young people who participated in focus groups, cognitive interviews, and field-testing. Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to measure internal consistency and reliability of the full instrument and the 5 protective and promotive factor subscales. Principal component analyses revealed items that did not fit well within the instrument structure and subsequently were eliminated. Analyses of the final version of the instrument showed that the Youth Thrive Survey has high levels of internal consistency and reliability. All alphas for the subscales were greater than 0.80 and the alpha for the full instrument was 0.963. This web-based, self-report survey is appropriate for use by organizations serving young people ages 12 to 26, both those who are involved with child welfare and juvenile justice systems and those who have no history of such involvement. It can be used for assessment and case planning with youth, program evaluation, and continuous quality improvement. The Youth Thrive Survey, available in English and Spanish, shows great promise and utility for organizations that employ positive youth development approaches.

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