**This is a sample program proposal** 

The Effective Problem Solving and Communication Program is a program for at risk children ages 11-14 and their parents residing in Paterson. The program consists of 18 group sessions for children, including three sessions with their parents or guardians and six sessions for parents, including three sessions with their children. All groups will be run in groups of a maximum of seven participants in each of the children’s groups and parent groups and 5 families during the family training sessions. These sessions will teach families how to communicate effectively, problem solve, resolve conflicts and make healthy decisions.

I plan, through the Girls and Boys Club of Paterson, to bring the program on site to two elementary schools and one other community agency, including the Girls and Boys Club. The children ages 11-14 that teachers and staff in their schools and/or community agency will identify exhibit dysfunctional behaviors. Fifteen families will be given the program from January 2005 to June 2005 and 15 new families will be given the program from July 2005 to December 2005.

Incentives and childcare will be offered. Our staff will reach out to all schools in Paterson to make them aware of the program. The children and their families will increase healthy communication, problem-solving and life skills and will decrease negative behaviors by 25% upon completion of the program. The program will be evaluated through pre-tests and post-tests to make sure that it meets its goals.

According to the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health (2003) 19.5 million (8.2%), of the population age 12 or older currently uses illicit drugs. According to the 2001-2002 data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (ONDCP Clearinghouse), during 2002, there were 7,310 juvenile arrests for drugs abuse violations in New Jersey. Paterson is located in Northern New Jersey. The New Jersey Juvenile Commission (JJC) stated that the majority (50%) of adolescents returning from a JJC commitment returned to five cities in New Jersey. Paterson is one of those cities. Focusing resources in those concentrated areas which include Paterson, will reach the majority of youths that are ordered to go to JJC for juvenile delinquency.

The program strategy that will be utilized will be Prevention Education. The Curriculum which will include components of the research based cognitive and interpersonal program by Myrna Shure (1992), I Can Problem Solve (ICPS), and The Strengthening Families Program by Virginia Molgaard and Richard Spoth (1999), will teach these teens how to resolve interpersonal problems that will prevent them from behaving in non-productive ways. These behaviors are indicators to substance abuse and/or delinquency.

The identified population for this program is children ages 11-14 who exhibit dysfunctional behavioral problems such as antisocial behaviors and rebelliousness, and/or lack of problem solving and life skills. Research (Shure, 1999) has shown that when children learn to use problem solving thinking, their social adjustment improves, with significant reductions in demanding, aggression, emotional upset and social withdrawal. In addition, a parent component will be implemented.

The focus of this program will be on developing a set of interpersonal problem-solving skills that relate to overt behaviors. Adding to behavioral outcomes, the parent interventions are designed to help parents use an effective and healthy style of communication that guides their children to make their own choices and be responsible for those choices. The parent component will help reduce family management problems and strengthen the flowing factors: clear norms, clear household rules, and a significant relationship with parent/guardian.

The program will offer two series for the year 2005. The first series for the children’s group will consist of eighteen sessions running from February 2005 to June 2005. The parent and family component will consist of six sessions running form April 2005 to June 2005. Each series will consist of fifteen families.

The second series will incorporate the same systematic method of implementation but will run form August 2005 to December 2005. The months of January and July 2005 will be utilized for logistics and evaluation purposes.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The overall goal for the program is to teach children and parents the process of critical thinking to help them think more clearly to situations presented. By enhancing these skills, it will increase the probability of preventing more serious problems by addressing the behavioral predictors or risk factors. This program will decrease impulsivity, enhance relationships and make both the parent and child more confident by enhancing the communication between them. The parents are the most influential in the children’s life; therefore, the enhancement in the communication will strengthen the family support for the child and will guide the child to make more positive choices in life.

GOAL ONE:

Thirty at risk children ages 11-14, who exhibits behavioral dysfunctions, will increase problem solving life skills by 25%. This will decrease dysfunctional behaviors such as, poor socialization, rebelliousness, oppositional behavior and aggression.

OBJECTIVES

1. By December 2005, after completing the eighteen prevention education sessions of 40 minutes each in the Effective Family Problem Solving, thirty identified children ages 11-14 will show a 25% improvement in the behavioral rating scores and problem solving skills which will measure the new skills acquired or strengthen positive behavioral skills and knowledge. The children will be able to:
2. Increase assertiveness/decrease dominance and threats by identifying four consequences and alternative positive solutions to various situations presented regarding the matter.
3. Be less physically aggressive by demonstrating through role-play three anger management skills.
4. Improve patience and delay gratification by identifying five alternatives when presented with situations that might evoke an impulsive reaction such as, wanting a video game when the parent is unable to purchase it.
5. Display empathy learned through role-playing active listening, respect, and compromise.
6. Display appropriate social skills by verbally stating a minimum of three positive qualities of two of their peers and identifying how their behaviors affect how other people feel.
7. By December 2005, after completing 12 hours of the parent component of Effective Family Problem Solving, 30 parents will exhibit a 25% improvement in their post test scores on childrearing styles. Parents will report an improvement in:
8. Increase in positive alternatives to disciplining and simple explanations and interventions by listing or verbalizing a minimum of three alternative parenting approaches and role playing appropriate verbal and nonverbal communication.
9. Increase in problem-solving and reasoning, in both modeling for child and instruction by verbally describing three positive behaviors that will enhance the self-esteem of their children and provide them with a display healthy behaviors.
10. c. Increase parent-child relationships by demonstrating by role-play he initiation and continuation of family counseling and meetings.

GOAL TWO:

Thirty families, after completing three 90-minute sessions in the family skills training will exhibit a 25% improvement in their communication skills measured through the display of positive child-parent interactions during the family skills sessions and written posttests.

OBJECTIVES:

1. Parents will decreasing the use of power to control their children’s behavior by demonstrating by role-play the use of “I” statements, active listening, respect, and compromising.
2. Children will decrease rebellious behaviors by demonstrating with their parents by role-play the use of “I” statements, active listening, respect and compromise.

STAFF

The program will be supervised by a Certified Prevention Specialist (CPS). The CPS will have a Masters Degree in Counseling and 5 years of combined experience in substance abuse treatment and prevention. She will work 35 hours per week and will spend one hour a week on supervision with a prevention counselor. The Certified Prevention Specialist, along with the Prevention Counselor will work on the program development and coordinate the on-site operation of the program. The Certified Prevention Specialist will serve as the liaison to the community and the schools. She will organize and present the program, do the public relations and press releases. The program will be marketed through press releases and direct contact with key personnel of the Paterson school district and community agencies. The Girls and Boys club has already committed to work in partnership with us.

The CPS who will meet with school personnel and conduct the classes for the children and their parents will run the program. The Program Counselor will assist the CPS in the above stated activities.

The Prevention Counselor will do the outreach, evaluation and data collection for the programs running in the community and schools. The Prevention Counselor will have minimum qualifications of a BA in the human service field or 4 years experience in substance abuse prevention. He/she will spend 2 hours per week in parent interviewing (for evaluation purposes) and data entry. He/she will also spend 2 hours per week on additional evaluation surveys and questionnaires. Recruitment will start immediately by placing a help wanted advertisement in the Herald News, submitting flyers with job descriptions to the Education in Human Services Departments at William Patterson University and Montclair State University, and informing the agencies who agree to collaborate about the position opening. Volunteers will also be hired for logistics purposes.

CHILDREN’S GROUP

Weekly Sessions (40 minutes each)

Mondays 4:30 p.m. -5:10 p.m.

Sessions 16, 17, 18 will be family training sessions from 4:30 p.m. -6:00 p.m.

Locations: School 21 during after-school care in boys’ locker room; School 30 during after-school care in teacher’s conference room;Boys and Girls Club in room 111; Barnert Kids Corner in room 444

Materials: The ICPS Red book: Intermediate Grades by Myrna Shure (1999), easel, and paper

Session: 1 Who and I What am I thinking Of?

Purpose: To encourage children to think about the characteristics of others as the first step toward thinking outside oneself when interpersonal problems arise.

Session: 2 What Makes People Feel the Way They Do?

Purpose: To sensitize children to people’s feelings and presences by helping them see that different people feel different ways about the same thing and that people can feel the same way about the same things.

Session: 3 Negation, Multiple Possibilities, Feelings, Two Things at the Same Time

Purpose: Awareness of various solutions and how to cope when things do not go the way we want them to.

Session: 4 Feelings: Frustrated, Impatient, Disappointed, Embarrassed

Purpose: To help children increase awareness of their own and other people’s feelings and how to identify how other people feel and cope with these feelings for later problem-solving.

Session: 5 What Else Can I Do?

Purpose: To encourage children to think of as many solutions to different problems.

Session 6: So What is the Problem Here?

Purpose: To illustrate to children that sometimes one assumes what the problem is but sometimes it is not the actual problem.

Session 7: Do I Remember?

Purpose: To show children how important it is to pay attention to what other people say and to practice those skills.

Session 8: Problems with My Siblings or Friends.

Purpose: To expand on perspective taking and understand reasons of a particular event such as interpersonal problems.

Session 9: Problems with my Parent(s).

Purpose: To increase awareness of how different behaviors affect the way the parent feels and might react. To practice more complex problem solving skills and coping.

Session 10: Problems with Three People at the Same Time.

Purpose: To expand on more complex problem solving and consequential thinking.

Session 11: Can I Tell You What Happened?

Purpose: To suggest why finding out why things happen before reacting and venting emotions is important.

Session 12: What do They Know?

Purpose: To extend on perspective taking and thinking about simultaneous coordination of more than one viewpoint, the base on differential knowledge about a situation.

Session 13: Remembering a Time When………

Purpose: To reminisce on actual problem situations in other to review and practice problem solving skills and identifying alternative solutions to each problem.

Session 14: Finding the Right Solution Takes Time Sometimes

Purpose: To help the children recognize that sometimes it takes you cannot solve a problem quickly and that the first thing that comes to mind is not always the best solution.

Session 15: Let’s Write Some Alternative Solutions

Purpose: To illustrate real life interpersonal problems and encourage them to think of solutions and consequences.

Session 16: Let’s Practice Communicating Mom/Dad? (session with parents)

Purpose: To illustrate the importance of active listening and practice with parents.

Session 17: Let’s talk some more (session with parents)

Purpose: To greater emphasize why it is important to actively listen to parents in order to encourage later sensitivity to their thoughts and feelings.

Session 18: Wrap – Up. What I Learned About You (session with parents)

Purpose: To express empathy and appreciating the parent role for the children and children’s perspectives for the parents.

PARENT’S/FAMILY TRAINING

Weekly Sessions (90 minutes each)

Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Sessions 4, 5 and 6 will be held Mondays with their children.

Location: Boys and Girls Club

Materials: Handouts, video, easel

Session 1: What do I want from this Experience?

Purpose: To increase awareness of the importance of building a relationship with children. A discussion and video will delineate the positives and negative of interacting with children in different ways.

Session 2: Basic Principles of Communication with Children

Purpose: Step-by-step outline of different communication strategies

Session 3: Parenting Styles

Purpose: Discussion and practice of different parenting styles..

Sessions 4, 5, and 6: In conjunction with children’s last three sessions.

CHALLENGES

The families in Paterson are so transient and will not all be able to complete the entire program because they are constantly moving around. The challenge will be in reaching out to those parents and convincing them to continue the program even though they will no longer live in the area. The program will provide transportation for families that do not have a means of transportation. This will in turn increase participation and continuation of the program to completion.

Another challenging factor will be in how well the teachers and staff will buy-in to the effectiveness of this program and whether or not they care about the work they do. The teachers might see this as added work to their already busy schedules. There might be some resistance in identifying children since this might cause and unpleasant reaction from the parent. The program will attempt to decrease the work load of the teacher by minimizing any paperwork and/or establishing a strong rapport with each teacher and staff member.

Recruiting the parents might also pose a challenge. Based on my experience in working with children in the schools, the parent turn-out to any school function is low. For example, School 15 in Paterson implemented a Family appreciation day one month ago in which they offered prizes and other incentives. Fifty parents out of 1100 students attended. This figure, according to the Vice Principal of the School, is actually high compared to other recent functions the school has held. Continuous invitations will go out in the mail, as well as, reaching out through phone calls, teachers and staff.

Evaluation

The evaluation process will be a systematic attempt to assess the program and see if the goals were met. The Prevention Counselor who will collect the data by performing interviews with parents and score the behavioral rating scale will do this. The program will evaluate the impact, outcomes and process of the program in a quantitative and qualitative way. Questions to be answered through interviewing and surveys are:

• Did the program provide the number and types of services that were stated in the goals?
• Did the program meet the objectives?
• Were our methods successful?
• Did the children and parents improve their problem solving skills and decrease family management problems?
• Did the parents increase their level of comfort with various aspects of parenting?

All forms can be found in the appendices. The surveys and questionnaires are designed to measure the process, outcome and impact of the program. These consist of the following:

• Behavior Rating Scale (Appendix A: Shure’s ICPS book)
• The Parenting Style Interview (pg. 214-225, Raising a Thinking Preteen)
• The Parent’s Evaluation (observational)

The Behavior Rating Scale will help teachers and staff identifies problem behaviors and at-risk children. It can also be used to determine the appropriateness of a child’s behavior.

The Childrearing styles of parents should also show improvement after completion of the program and a pre and post survey about childrearing skills and styles will be conducted for each family.

SUMMARY

Every day problems come up in a typical family. When families have emotional and social difficulties, it is hard for them to find a way to grow into teenagers and then adults. Rebelliousness, along with peer pressure, can be destructive. For this reason, parents need to offer their teens support, involvement, and guidance. Because children at this age are experiencing struggles with identity, it is a time when many of them experiment with unhealthy choices. In one of their pamphlets, the Partnership for a Drug Free America (1998) states that although teens may not show they appreciate it, parents profoundly shape the choices their children make. Probably one of the reasons why children do not listen when told what to do is because they are not allowed to sort through their own thoughts about things. Adults always feel they have the right answers for the children. If children felt more respected, perhaps this in turn, this will increase the level of respect the children will give, especially to the parents.

In this class, I experienced what I always knew, that everyone has a different perspective on things. I learned that the way I feel about myself is not necessarily the same view point others have about me. This is also important when leading groups with children. It is important to ask the child what happened so that you know what the actual situation is and not your interpretation. Making assumptions can only hinder the relationship with a child, just like it can in any other situation. I have discovered this in the group process of our group in this class. In addition, I learned that when leading a group, the members are more prone to follow your lead and are less resistant in appreciating your views if you are not degrading and involve each member in the decision making process.

This is the point I want to make to these parents about their parenting styles. If they want to control their children’s behavior then they might get the results they want because their children fear them. This is compared to the authoritative leading style. Is it not healthier to teach children how to deal with their own problems rather than mandating certain behaviors of them? Children who think through their problems care about themselves and others and are more successful at making friends, and at making responsible decisions in light of their potential consequences (Shure, 2000).

This program will hopefully fill the gap of communication between children and their parents so that the children can feel empowered to make wise decisions. This will decrease the number of children residing in Paterson who will eventually be labeled “juvenile delinquents” and decrease the number of children who end up losing their lives to unhealthy lifestyles. A strong family foundation is the key to achieving this goal.

 

REFRENCES

Stout, Bruce D., (2003). Community Re-Entry of Adolescents from New Jersey’s Juvenile Justice System. New Jersey: The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute’s Re-Entry Roundtable.

Office of National Drug Control Policy, Drug Policy Information Clearinghouse (2004). State of New Jersey Profile of Drug Indicators. New Jersey: ONDCP

Molgaard, Virginia. & Spoth, Richard. The Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth Retrieved November 23, 2004, from http://www.strenghteningfamilies.org

U.S. Department of Education (1998). Growing Up Drug Free: A Parent’s Guide to Prevention.

New York: The Whit House Office of National Drug Control Policy & Partnership for a Drug-Free America.

Shure, Myrna B., (1992) I Can Problem Solve: An Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving Program. Champaign: Research Press.

Israeloff, R., Shure, Myrna B., (2000) Raising a Thinking Preteen. New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.