School-to-work transition program for at-risk youths: Cultural adaptation

BACKGROUNDAt-risk youths experience complex life circumstances with high poverty and school dropout rates, often never obtaining a matriculation certificate. Schools emphasize academic skills but lack programs for early career development, particularly those adapted for minority cultural characteristics.OBJECTIVEThis article describes the cultural adaptation of a school-to-work transition program (STWT).METHODSUsing our experience with an STWT for at-risk majority-group youths in Israel, we adapted, implemented, and evaluated the BALASHNA program (an acronym in Arabic of a program for successful young people at work) for at-risk youths in a traditional minority community. Forty-one at-risk Druze youths (11th graders) from two high schools participated in the 20-week culturally adapted STWT.RESULTSComparing the students' pre- and post-intervention results showed improved knowledge of the work world, future orientation, and work performance.CONCLUSIONSThis study provides evidence that BALASHNA's concepts, tools, principles, and short internship experiences were effective for the initial career development of minority at-risk youths. It contributes ten effective principles for cultural adaptations of other programs and contexts.