G. Lawrence Farmer, MSW, Ph D is an Associate Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program at Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service.  His scholarly interests center on understanding those factors that promote the well-being of youth. He has published work in Social Service Review, Children and Schools, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment and Social Work in Health Care, and Journal of Social Service Research.  Two of the projects he is presently involved in, Resilient Scholars and Westchester Building the Future, seeks to promote youth’s well-being. Both projects seek to increase protective and promotive factor by transforming institutions that provide services to youth.  The Resilient Scholars Program seeks promote positive youth development by developing the social and emotional learning competencies of middle and high school students.  Additionally, it seeks to develop a program implementation model that will build school’s capability to implement youth-centered interventions that will be sustained overtime. The Westchester Building the Future project is a collaboration between the Westchester County Department of Social Services, Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health and Fordham University to restructure services to youth transitioning out of the foster care system.  The goal is to empower youth in their efforts to successfully navigate the transition and to achieve changes in the system of care for youth in the system.