Foundation Gives Counselors Skills To Connect And Inspire Florida's Youth In Detention

North Palm Beach, FL, -- There are 25 detention facilities in the state of Florida. As of November 2009, ARISE life skills training programs are being utilized in 22 of those facilities. The Master Trainer program plays a big part in the continuation of the ARISE interactive group lessons. The newly-certified ARISE Master Trainers return to their sites and teach other staff members how to engage the youth and effectively use the innovative ARISE curricula as ARISE Life Skills Facilitators.

The five-day ARISE Master Trainer workshop is an intense experience for juvenile justice staff. In just a week, these dedicated individuals are transformed into powerhouses of knowledge and expertise. They take their new skill set and use it to educate and motivate the rest of the staff. ARISE Master Trainers certify and mentor their new Life Skills Facilitators and show them how doing the life skills lessons gives incarcerated youth the tools they need to stay out of the adult prison system and lead productive, successful lives.

The Master Training workshop takes commitment and dedication, but the results are often dramatic.

“The Master Training helped me expand my thinking,” said Joe Bellamy of the Osceola Detention Center in Kissimmee, Florida said. “I was able to share my personal experiences. It was very informative and helpful.”

For almost 25 years, ARISE, a nonprofit foundation, has functioned as a developer and publisher of life-management skills curricula and staff training programs. Created to reach at-risk, incarcerated youth in detention centers and secure facilities as well as other troubled youth. ARISE is also utilized as a powerful prevention tool for teenagers and young adults. ARISE programs consist of interactive group discussions and activities designed to break the ice quickly and capture the attention of even the most introverted participants.
ARISE attributes its success to its three innovative staff training programs. The Life Skills Facilitator training teaches staff how to conduct ARISE interactive group discussions and activities with the troubled youth in their care. The Master Training workshop, mentioned above, certifies participants to train others as ARISE Life Skills Group Facilitators at their respective facilities. The ARISE Drop It at the Door training shows juvenile justice staff how to drop work-related stress and anger at the door when they get home and vice versa.

ARISE programs were utilized for decades in the Miami-Dade School system. ARISE has forged a strong partnership with the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). ARISE programs have been changing the lives of juvenile offenders in the Florida juvenile justice system since 1996. Its dynamic programs are being taught in over 70 DJJ facilities across the state, as well as alternative schools and organizations such as the Salvation Army and the Boys and Girls Clubs.

ARISE programs are also used in over 100 organizations in the District of Columbia, including Washington, D.C. public and charter schools, the D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, the Metropolitan Police, the District of Columbia jail and the D.C. Superior Court Probation Department.

Because ARISE is not for profit, it is able to provide a wide array of training opportunities and an ever-evolving life skills curricula for at-risk youth at rock-bottom prices. Profit is not a motivating factor. Its nonprofit status gives ARISE Foundation the ability to get out into the community, speak to incarcerated youth and adults, and turn their cautionary tales into lessons meant to assist at-risk youth in becoming law abiding citizens by learning from others’ mistakes.

A recent study by Vanderbilt University and the University of Maryland showed that the cost of one offender with at least six police contacts from childhood to age 32 is $3,172,998. In other words, rescuing one child from a life of crime saves taxpayers more than three million dollars.

Since ARISE was established over two decades ago, it has trained and certified 5,760 Group Facilitators who have taught over 4,055,708 documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons in almost all 50 states. ARISE has been used successfully in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Botswana and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Requests for translation have also come in from as far away as Pakistan, South Africa, Cambodia, Singapore and China.

For more information, please call Edmund Benson at ARISE toll free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org.

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