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 Program Overview
ACCEPTANCE.
We all want it. When we don't get it, we find ourselves in dysfunctional
relationships that cause societal problems "from A to V" –
Addiction, Divorce, Premature pregnancies, Suicide, and Violence.
Regardless of age, race,
class, or gender, each of us has experienced
REJECTION,
and it hurts.
Some of us respond by
dropping out of school – in a survey of U.S. high school dropouts, almost 1
in 4 cited "Felt I didn't belong" as a reason for quitting school.
Others "drop out of" jobs, marriages, and society.
More and more of us now
react to
REJECTION
by rejecting others through violence or rejecting ourselves through
self-destructive behaviors such as addictions and suicide.
We express
ACCEPTANCE
or REJECTION
through the way we use and respond to facts, Opinions, and Feelings.
R.I.Sk's proactive RELATIONSHIP IMPROVEMENT SKILLS
program develops the intra- and interpersonal skills – the emotional
intelligences – needed to feel and express
ACCEPTANCE
of self and others and "Relate with Respect and Responsibility" at
school, at home, on the job, and in the community.
Making full use of The
Group – the most powerful, most overlooked learning resource in education
today – R.I.Sk integrates training in communication
skills, cooperative learning, leadership, peer mediation, prejudice
reduction, and reality therapy. Unlike most other approaches to character
education, the R.I.Sk program intrigues,
strongly engages, and profoundly impacts participants of all ages. It is
appealing as well as effective because
it
- is
truly group-centered
- relates crucial
concepts such as Control, Choice, Awareness, Respect, and
Responsibility (symbolized by the "R.I.Sk CCARR") to the
universal need for Acceptance and fear of Rejection
-
translates abstract "core" values into 20 measurable behaviors that are
easy to learn and fun to practice.
Through consensus
activities, roleplays, observation and feedback, journaling, and various
other exercises and games based on identifying, expressing, and responding
to facts, Opinions, and Feelings, R.I.Sk participants master roles and
responses they can use to
- improve
any school, work, family, or social relationship
-
interact more effectively and comfortably in an increasingly diverse
society
-
function as leaders in
any group
- develop
the communication and teambuilding skills wanted by business and industry.
In a R.I.Sk group,
participants learn with and through each other, guided by norms stressing
respect and responsibility. As group
members bond across age, gender, class, and cultural differences, the peer pressure so often linked to
personal and societal problems becomes an irresistible force providing the
awareness, skills, and motivation needed to make positive changes in
behavior. In this strongly supportive "second family," adolescents and
adults set behavioral goals, willingly try new behaviors, and accept and act
on caring feedback.
Since 1992, over 10,000
teachers; elementary, middle, high school, and college students; parents;
business people; and seniors in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been
introduced to R.I.Sk concepts and activities through
presentations and workshops, staff development seminars, adult education
courses, 1-, 2-, and 3-credit continuing education courses for teachers, 12-
to 20-hour enrichment programs, inservices, parent/teacher nights, and
Elderhostel courses. Featured at leadership conferences and orientation
inservices for high school and college students, the program also has proved
very effective with juvenile offenders and has been used to train community
justice panelists and to help parents and teens create more positive family
relationships.
Applied in school settings,
R.I.Sk 's prosocial concepts and models increase the
effectiveness of educators. What's more, they can be shared with – and
developed in – students via strategies and techniques that can be used to
teach core curriculum content, to improve any staff-student interaction, to
build a school-wide culture, and to increase
parental involvement.
In any context, this
unique program creates strongly-positive, highly- supportive communities in
which all participants share the same behavioral language and use the same
life-changing behavioral skills to give and receive Acceptance. The outcome
is inevitable: a dramatic reduction in antisocial attitudes and behaviors and an equally
exciting increase in cooperation and productivity.
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