Evaluating the Teens and beyond program
The Association for Children with Disability (ACD) engaged the Parenting Research Centre (PRC) to evaluate their Teens and beyond program. The program was designed to support families of teens with disability aged 13 years to 18, with the goal of normalising the experiences of families as they navigate their young person’s teenage years and support their teen’s growing independence.
Teens and beyond was successfully piloted in March 2021, and has been delivered to parents across Victoria since June 2021. The program explores topics such as post-school opportunities, relationships, puberty, youth mental health, and risk-taking and decision-making skills.
The PRC completed an evaluation of programs delivered between June 2021 to June 2023, to monitor the program outcomes and implementation. Findings indicate that improvements in parent self-efficacy, self-advocacy, confidence to support their teen’s independence and sensitive adolescent stages, and parental empowerment, were all sustained six months after program completion.
The program’s success may be attributable to the ACD’s trusted reputation, the quality of the program content, actionable and practical information, and the co-facilitation service delivery model presented by facilitators with lived experience.
This project was a successful collaboration, drawing on the strengths of the PRC’s track record of program evaluation and ACD’s experience delivering workshops and programs to families in Victoria with disability.
The project was funded through an Information Linkages and Capacity Building grant awarded to ACD.