Background

The more than one billion children living in poverty worldwide are often marginalized from the resources needed for health and well-being, a situation that may create feelings of hopelessness and diminish chances for thriving. Compassion International (CI), a faith-based child-sponsorship organization committed to alleviating child poverty and promoting thriving, uses a strengths-based, positive youth development (PYD) perspective that emphasizes the importance of religious faith as an asset in the lives of youth. In an initial assessment of CI’s approach to promoting PYD, the authors tested measures aimed at comparing youth enrolled in CI to youth not enrolled in CI.

The findings indicate promising first step in understanding the potential role of strengths-based youth development programs in promoting the thriving of youth living in poor ecological settings.