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

BACKGROUND: At-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. OBJECTIVE: This article describes the cultural adaptation of a school-to-work transition program (STWT). METHODS: Using 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. RESULTS: Comparing the students’ pre- and post-intervention results showed improved knowledge of the work world, future orientation, and work performance. CONCLUSIONS: This 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.