# A Pilot Trial of a Network Intervention for Youth after Incarceration

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $205,522

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
My long-term career goal is to be an independent investigator in adolescent substance use, solving key barriers to health
for justice-involved and other high-risk youth. My short-term (five year) career goal is to gain skills in social networks,
adolescent substance use, and randomized trials, while gathering pilot data for an R01 to robustly test the proposed
intervention. I will combine formal coursework, learning from my mentorship team and community partners, and research
activities that fill these critical training gaps while positioning me for an R01 submission in year 3 of the proposed award.
My research to date and review of the literature have convinced me that a vicious cycle exists between adolescent
substance use disorders and youth incarceration. Re-wiring adolescent social networks during community reentry after
incarceration can potentially break the vicious cycle of adolescent substance use and youth incarceration. Social networks
powerfully influence adolescent substance use and delinquent behavior, yet little is known about how to intervene on
social networks to improve health. Community reentry is a key opportunity to re-set youths' social networks and re-direct
high-risk youth toward a healthier, more supportive network that can foster drug abstinence and reduce recidivism. We
hypothesize that an adult who has successfully navigated reentry can actively guide youth to rewire their social network
by encouraging pro-social relationships, troubleshooting basic barriers to healthcare and social services, and helping
create linkages to substance use and mental health treatment services. The goal of this community-partnered study is to
measure the impact of an innovative pilot intervention to address two key barriers to accessing behavioral health treatment
among recently incarcerated youth: poor care coordination and need for more positive support from the social network.
The proposed study intervention, the Youth Aftercare & Reentry Program (YARP), is based on the successful adult
Transitions Clinic model, and is being adapted for delivery to youth by our community partners in the Los Angeles
County juvenile justice system. YARP network coaches will provide recently released youth a formerly incarcerated adult
role model who provides care coordination and social support to facilitate access to needed health services, and who
actively intervenes to guide youth toward pro-social peers and adults. We propose a pilot longitudinal, randomized
study of YARP, using a community-partnered participatory research approach. The primary outcome will be reductions in
adolescent substance use in response to the intervention (Aim 1). Secondary outcomes will test whether the intervention
increases receipt of behavioral health services, decreases recidivism and mental health symptoms, and improves school
and work engagement (Aim 2). Finally, we will examine social networks as a potential mechanism by measuring whether
youth...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9959425
- **Project number:** 5K23DA045747-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Elizabeth Barnert
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $205,522
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9959425

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9959425, A Pilot Trial of a Network Intervention for Youth after Incarceration (5K23DA045747-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9959425. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*