Kids Experiencing Young Successes

The Foundling’s Kids Experiencing Young Successes (KEYS) program works with families to prevent long-term placement of their adolescent children in foster care or in a criminal justice residential placement by providing them with evidence-based interventions that support improved behavior, family functioning, and stability.

When an adolescent frequently skips school, associates with delinquent peers, uses drugs, and even runs away from home for long stretches of time, his or her parent may seek help. The parent’s outreach may result in their child being sentenced to probation or placed in a detention center, a group care facility, or in foster care. Open to families in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx, KEYS works to prevent this type of placement, and instead offers evidence-based therapy to help keep the young person at home with their families. Program participants are provided with one of three evidence-based models for in-home interventions: Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT), or Multisystemic Therapy – Substance Abuse (MST-SA).