participant pilot cohort
Graduate program designAcademic exemplar · 2026
Pathways Forward
Career development
with agency at
the center.
A research-grounded, eight-week program model for young adults transitioning from foster care—designed to connect identity, education, work, material stability, and enduring relationships.
How to read this work ↓Status / provenance
What this project is
A theoretical program,
seriously built.
Pathways Forward was created in July 2026 for MCC 645 Career Development at Bellevue University. It translates research, counseling theory, ethics, program planning, and evaluation logic into a complete proposal and executive decision memo. The work has been selected as an exemplar for future students.
Pathways Community Resource Center is a fictional nonprofit created for the assignment. The program has not been launched, funded, staffed, or evaluated; no enrollment, partnership, or outcome is claimed. Its value is as a transparent demonstration of applied program design.
weekly three-hour sessions
individual counseling sessions
days of planned follow-up
“Durable career development emerges when self-knowledge, confidence, opportunity, education, relationships, and material stability are addressed together.”
01 / Planning architecture
Five moves from
need to program.
The design follows the first five planning steps described by Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey: define the population, determine needs, write measurable objectives, choose delivery methods, and determine content.
Define the population
A voluntary cohort of 24 Denver-area young adults ages 18–24 who spent time in foster care after age 14.
Determine needs
A participatory assessment built from a 40-person survey, compensated listening sessions, stakeholder interviews, service-gap data, and a local opportunity scan.
Write measurable objectives
Targets connect career agency, a participant-approved plan, workforce readiness, education milestones, supportive relationships, and work or learning entry.
Select delivery methods
Weekly workshops, individual counseling, six months of near-peer mentoring, case coordination, employer exposure, education navigation, and barrier-removal supports.
Determine content
An intentional sequence that begins with identity and possibility, then moves toward decisions, education, communication, work, and a participant-led launch plan.
02 / Service model
One program.
Several forms of support.
Group learning
Weekly workshops
Peer learning, short instruction, guided practice, choice-based activity, a shared meal, transit support, and hybrid participation when needed.
Individual care
Counseling
At least three sessions for intake, assessment interpretation, planning, midpoint refinement, and exit—with additional contact according to need.
Relational continuity
Near-peer mentoring
Twice-monthly contact for six months with trained, supervised mentors, alongside intentional development of natural and community supports.
Environmental access
Case coordination
Consent-based help with housing, education, benefits, legal needs, transportation, technology, childcare, healthcare, and workforce systems.
Real-world connection
Employer engagement
Occupational talks, job shadows, mock interviews, paid work-based learning, and interviews governed by a job-quality compact.
Participant control
Choice throughout
Assessments generate hypotheses, not prescriptions. Participation is voluntary, and disclosure or research consent cannot become a condition of service.
03 / Eight-week sequence
Begin with identity.
End with a path forward.
Each week adds one portfolio artifact and one manageable action. Practical job-search skills grow from a clearer sense of self rather than from pressure to take the first available option.
Begin with strengths
Belonging, choice, career as a life-development process, intake, and readiness.
Identity, interests & values
Narrative identity, culture, life roles, interests, work values, and assessment consent.
Possibilities & labor-market reality
Career clusters, transferable skills, job quality, local demand, and occupational research.
Decisions, supports & barriers
Self-efficacy, resilience, support mapping, benefits, and barrier planning.
Education & training pathways
Diploma or GED completion, college, certificates, apprenticeships, financial aid, Chafee, and ETV navigation.
Communicating value
Résumés, applications, digital identity, references, and explaining transitions without forced disclosure.
Entering & sustaining work
Interview practice, workplace communication, rights, accommodations, feedback, conflict, and financial basics.
Launch & community
Portfolio presentation, goal commitments, mentor and employer connections, contingency planning, and a 90-day appointment.
04 / Rights and safeguards
Trauma informed
without becoming trauma centered.
The model recognizes that safety, trust, culture, access, and real material conditions shape participation. It also preserves the boundary between career development and trauma treatment.
Youth authority
A paid Youth Design Council reviews needs, curriculum language, participant-facing policy, and interpretation of findings.
Choice-centered practice
Participants retain meaningful control over goals, assessments, disclosure, referrals, pacing, and evaluation participation.
Trauma-informed boundaries
Predictable routines, permission to pass, private space, collaborative goals, and warm clinical referrals keep career services safe without turning them into trauma-processing groups.
Practical access
Meals, transit, technology, flexible make-up options, disability accommodations, and allowable childcare support address barriers that motivation alone cannot solve.
Responsible mentoring
Near-peer mentors are screened, trained, supervised, and held to clear protocols for boundaries, crisis response, mandated reporting, and referral.
Ethical employer partnership
Partners agree to wages, nondiscrimination, predictable supervision, accommodations, feedback, and a designated program contact; no participant is promised a job.
05 / Evaluation
Measure learning.
Do not manufacture certainty.
These are proposed pilot targets—not achieved results. The evaluation would report reach, retention, service dosage, participant experience, missing data, equity patterns, and milestones at week four, week eight, day 90, and day 180.
Career agency
Participants with matched pre/post data increase career decision self-efficacy by at least 0.30 standard deviations.
Career plan
Completers produce a participant-approved plan with a primary goal, alternative, requirements, supports, and dated actions.
Workforce readiness
Completers create a tailored résumé, complete a mock interview, and demonstrate four of five rubric competencies.
Education connection
Participants seeking education complete an application, aid or ETV inquiry, or enrollment milestone within 90 days.
Work or learning entry
Reachable participants enter or remain in work, paid learning, credentials, or postsecondary education within 180 days.
Supportive relationships
Participants identify at least two supportive adults or organizations and complete one warm connection by week four.
Continuation or expansion would depend on preapproved benchmarks and evidence from multiple sources—not favorable anecdotes. Assessment scores would guide counseling and aggregate learning, never determine employability or restrict participation.
06 / Implementation readiness
Governance before growth.
A 12-week prelaunch period would finalize the participatory needs assessment, referral agreements, employer standards, staffing, mentor preparation, accessibility supports, privacy protocols, and measurement tools before enrollment.
The proposed team includes a program manager, licensed career counselor, career and education navigator, employer partnerships specialist, peer mentor coordinator, evaluation consultant, and eight paid mentors. Partnerships span child welfare, Chafee services, workforce centers, education, housing, health, legal, transportation, childcare, and employers.
Approval conditions proposed in the decision memo
- Paid Youth Design Council review before curriculum finalization.
- Written referral and employer agreements.
- A line-item budget protecting participant and mentor stipends.
- An evaluation and privacy plan approved before enrollment.
07 / Source documents
Read the complete work.
The public record includes the full 17-page program proposal with references and a two-page executive decision memo written for a fictional nonprofit board.
Program proposalResearch, planning architecture, curriculum, governance, evaluation, and referencesPDF · 17 pages ↗Decision memoFunding request, rationale, safeguards, approval conditions, and requested actionPDF · 2 pages ↗Why it belongs in Selected Works
Research becomes useful
when it can guide a decision.
Pathways Forward shows how scholarly evidence can become an ethical, measurable, operational plan while remaining honest about uncertainty, limits, and the authority of the people a program intends to serve.
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