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Functional Family Therapy – Gangs (FFT-G®) is an add-on program to the evidence-based Functional Family Therapy model, designed specifically for young people who are either already involved in gangs or are at heightened risk of becoming involved.

Building on the foundational principles and techniques of FFT, FFT-G enhances your team’s ability to serve a higher-risk population by integrating gang-specific intervention strategies. This program can be seamlessly implemented by teams that are already trained in Functional Family Therapy, allowing for a natural progression in service capabilities without the need to retrain in core FFT components.

Gang Prevention

Key Components of FFT-G

FFT-G follows the standard FFT model, with a sharpened focus on key components of gang prevention including:

FFT-G uses focused stakeholder engagement and education around local gang characteristics to match engagement and intervention strategies to the specific characteristics and social ecology of local gang-involved youth.

Many youths join gangs due to peer pressure, and/or to feel a sense of belonging. FFT-G works with intrafamilial and extrafamilial influences in a young person’s life, including peers, and strives to motivate the youth to positively change their peer associations and focus on pro-social behaviors that are followed by positive consequences.

Gang members are involved at a higher level than non-gang members in virtually all forms of criminal behavior including violent crime, property crime, drug use, drug sales, and gun crime. FFT-G considers the specific risk factors that lead youth to gang involvement and the criminogenic behaviors associated with involvement and places a focus on addressing those behaviors. 

Key Features of FFT-G

Our gang prevention program is:

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Successful at Reducing Crime

In a recent multi-year randomized trial, FFT-G® was found to significantly reduce criminal activity among youth and was found to be particularly effective in decreasing drug charges, crimes against person charges, and property charges.

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Cost-Effective

By significantly lowering arrest, confinement, and re-arrest rates, FFT-G brings large economic benefits to communities by lowering the costly fees associated with justice system involvement.

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Sustainable

By placing a focus on developing long-term, individualized plans for families, the FFT-G model is durable and sustainable. In fact, research shows that youth and families sustain benefits over a year after treatment.

Interested in implementing FFT’s evidence-based youth and family interventions?