Actions, Thoughts, and Feelings: A Cognitive Behavioral Approach to Preparing Justice-Involved Youth for Employment Success

Employment retention decreases recidivism and improves long-term outcomes for justice-involved youth. Teaching appropriate employment-related social skills can help justice-involved youth obtain and maintain employment. This article presents two lessons on taking responsibility from an employment curriculum that teaches foundational workplace skills designed for justice-involved youth and transition-age youth with disabilities. These lessons demonstrate how to use cognitive behavioral tenets to support youth self-regulation through teaching employment-related social skills. The two-lesson example can be implemented across educational contexts. Meaningful effects have been found for youth who have received the curriculum, and the curriculum has been rated well on social validity metrics by teachers and youth. Mastery of these skills may improve maintained employment for justice-involved youth and also youth with disabilities.