Rhode Island Teen Institute Remains Impactful after More Than a Decade Hiatus

Rhode Island Teen Institute (RITI) is a 5-day residential program based on the Positive Youth Development approach that exposes participants to intensive training in individual and community advocacy, decision-making, interpersonal communication, and leadership development. Results from prior iterations of RITI (2002-2009) demonstrated that the program was efficacious at improving leadership and other related skills among participants. However, unfortunately due to loss of funding, the program did not run from 2010-2023. The present study assesses the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the 2023 implementation of RITI after more than a decade-long hiatus. The program was successfully implemented with 44 youth participants, 95% of whom were satisfied with it. Significant increases in teamwork skills, communication skills, self-efficacy, psychological well-being, confidence, contribution, and creativity were observed among participants. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that RITI is still highly impactful. Residential training programs like RITI remain promising approach for health promotion among adolescents.