Smart Guides — Preparing Youth for Adult Independence and Work
Smart Transitions is a program initiative of the Together We Can Foundation based on brain research, which has revealed just how important the time period of 12 to 24 years of age is for adult brain development and connectivity.
The period in a young person’s life that stretches from puberty through adolescence and into their young adult years is a critical time for the development of an adult-functioning brain. While we may not be able to impact the neurological timetable of brain development, we can do a much better job of promoting socialization and behavioral maturation.
One of the things we have found that truly leads to Smart Transitions are “transition conversations.” That means engaging youth in serious and open-ended conversations about their futures, their dreams, and their plans.
This is the secret behind the success of our small classes targeting at-risk teens. But we also understand that the need is far too great for any one organization to address on its own, so Smart Transitions is also a community and now a national initiative. It involves school systems, human service agencies, and non-profit organizations serving youth.
We’ve taken some of the best information from our youth programs and made it available in print guides to help teachers, parents, mentors, and youth program staff facilitate these transition conversations with the youth in their care. This is our Smart Guide Program.
The guides are between 46 and 54 pages long in full color and profusely illustrated.
These guides are a perfect way to provide structure to a parent/child, teacher/student, or mentor/youth interaction. Some youth will read and digest the material in the guides on their own, asking questions as they arise, but, in our experience, the best-use scenario is when the guides are used as part of an open-ended conversation between a youth or a small group of youth and a caring adult.
All guides come in print form with an accompanying link to both a PDF digital download of the guide and a mentor or parent’s guide to using it to engage creatively with youth.
GET SET — A Smart Guide to Life Skills and Adulting
Is a young person in your care eager to become an adult, but unsure what that really means?
The GET SET Guide is a great place to start. It offers practical information on preparation, education, and planning for independent adulthood, built on over 40 years of experience working with young people.
The guide combines evidence-based research with insights from focus groups of youth and the adults who support them.
GET WORK — A Smart Guide to Workforce Readiness
For better or worse, the work we do often defines us and the jobs we choose play a major role in our happiness, fulfillment, and sense of purpose as adults.
GET WORK explores what young people need to know about finding and keeping a job and building a lasting career.
It draws on workforce development research, input from employers, and over 40 years of experience helping young adults understand how work works—and how to successfully step into the world of work.
The GET WORK guide delivers practical job readiness training for youth and develops core job readiness skills for youth to help them succeed in the workplace.
GET MONEY — A Smart Guide to Money Management
As adults, money is one of our biggest concerns, earning it, spending it, saving it, and managing it wisely. Yet, like relationships, it’s something we rarely learn about consistently in school.
GET MONEY offers practical guidance for achieving financial independence, with tips on managing and protecting your finances.
Produced with a grant from Towne Bank, a dynamic regional bank with a deep commitment to community, this guide takes you beyond the skills of making money (covered in GET WORK: A Smart Guide to Workforce Readiness) and into the skills you need to effectively manage your money.
As with all the publications in our Smart Guide series, the GET MONEY Guide breaks a complex topic down into easy-to-digest chunks of information with actionable steps.
GET HEALTHY — A Smart Guide to Health and Wellness
With a solid plan for transitioning to adult life and the workforce that aligns with a young person’s personality, gifts, values, and aspirations in life, and some sense of how to find and keep a job and manage personal finances, a young person is off to a strong start.
GET HEALTHY is a collection of important ideas and practical advice for making the kind of choices that lead to consistently better physical and mental health, as well as overall life happiness and contentment.
Produced in consultation with practicing pediatricians and adolescent psychology therapists, GET HEALTHY offers cutting-edge, research-based guidance for the kinds of behavioral choices that lead to more balanced and healthier bodies, minds, and emotional states.
This is not medical advice, nor is it meant to substitute for medical care or mental health counseling, but recent research suggests that our behavior and the choices we make can have a significant impact on our health and happiness.
Get Your Smart Guides Delivered for Free in Hampton Roads
Preparing for adulthood shouldn’t be confusing — and you don’t have to do it alone.
If you live within the Hampton Roads / Southeastern Virginia service area, you can receive your Smart Guide at no cost so your teen can start building the skills school doesn’t teach.
✔ Adult life skills
✔ Finding a job & building a career
✔ Managing money
✔ Building real-world Mentor guidance
✔ Real-world confidence
Your future-ready toolkit starts here.
