These relationships form a social safety net of multifaceted protective factors for young, at-risk children that helps them to succeed at home, in school, and in the community and to avoid becoming delinquent, violent, or addicted. FAST's values and structure are based on selected research in family therapy, child psychiatry, community development, group work, and stress and social support. The FAST program helps youth succeed by creating structured opportunities for voluntary involvement in repeated, positive, personal, interactive, communicative, and bonding experiences. These relationship-building interactions take place with the children and their primary caretaking parents, families, peers, and school and community professionals.
Interventions also take place with the parents and their peers.
The program begins with outreach in which parent-professional partnerships visit homes of isolated, stressed families, who are identified by schools, and invite them to the FAST meetings. The program brings together 10 to 15 families for 8 to 10 weekly sessions of carefully crafted social activities. Activities include building a family flag, sharing a family meal, singing together, playing communication games or feelings-identification games, engaging in peer activities, and parent networking. Parents continue Special Play daily at home. When families graduate from the weekly FAST sessions, they join an ongoing, school-based collective of 40 to 50 interdependent families who meet once a month for 2 years.