Dozens of representatives from juvenile justice and nonprofit organizations will engage in a presentation outlining the remarkable ARISE Life Skills and CHOICES training programs.
North Palm Beach, FL – ARISE founders Susan and Edmund Benson will captivate an audience of juvenile justice and youth organization employees at the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice headquarters in the Alexander building on June 10 at 10 AM.
The Bensons were invited to give a presentation by Greg Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Prevention and Victim Services within DJJ. ARISE programs are currently used in 74 juvenile justice facilities throughout the state of Florida. ARISE has taken a multifaceted approach to improving the lives of incarcerated youth and those that serve them. ARISE trains juvenile justice staff how to conduct interactive group life skills lessons with the youth in their care. The lessons teach juvenile offenders how to manage their anger, handle conflict, build their self esteem, avoid drugs and alcohol, stay out of gangs, find and keep a job and much more. The role of ARISE and the group facilitators is to engage the learners, get them talking and show them that their opinions and feelings matter.
ARISE has not forgotten about the stress and well-being of the staff at each DJJ facility. The CHOICES: Drop it at the Door program is a powerful workshop that provides a solid understanding of how each one of us can make the choice to drop home- and work-related anger, stress and frustration “at the door,” ending the boomerang effect of bringing home the stress from work, or carrying family problems such as financial worries and marital woes into the workplace. Eliminating the harmful transference of tension between the workplace and home is the focus of the CHOICES training.
The purpose of the presentation is to introduce ARISE staff training experiences and curricula to programs unfamiliar with the success of ARISE in Florida, nationally and internationally. ARISE wants to share over two decades of inspiring positive behavioral change in troubled youth and staff. The goal of the presentation is to develop partnerships with those serving vulnerable children and teens, thereby extending the work of ARISE and adding structure to programs and providing professional training to staff that interact with these youth.
For over 20 years, ARISE has operated as a developer and publisher of Life Management Skills curricula and staff training programs. Designed to reach at-risk, incarcerated youth in detention centers and secure facilities and on probation, 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 grab the attention of even the most turned-off participants. ARISE is particularly appropriate for youth with special requirements such as limited reading and/or writing ability and behavioral problems.
In its home state of Florida, ARISE 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 74 DJJ facilities across the state as well as the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs and alternative schools.
ARISE has also trained staff in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and 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.
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 $3 million dollars.
Since ARISE was established over two decades ago, it has trained and certified 5,284 Group Facilitators who have taught over 4,011,242 documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons across the United States. ARISE is also being used in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and the Kingdom of Bahrain. ARISE curricula are presently being translated into Kazakh, Russian. Requests for translations have also come in from as far away as Pakistan and South Africa.
For more information, or to schedule a training, please call Yasmin Isaacs at ARISE toll free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit ariselife-skills.org.
You’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.
Posted by ARISE Life Skills 
A few weeks ago, ARISE founder Edmund Benson came across a fantastic article entitled “How To Let Go and Forgive” by Leo Babauta. The concepts in the article are so crucial to happiness, yet so difficult for most people to grasp. We have all been hurt by someone at some point in our lives. Everyone experiences pain; not everyone deals with it in the same way. Certain people make a conscious CHOICE to let go and forgive. It’s not easy, but the results can be liberating.
Choice. It defines what it means to be human. Having an unpleasant thought? You can choose to make that thought disappear. In a bad mood? Choose to be happy. Yes, it’s THAT simple. Our choices tip the scales toward misery or bliss. The decisions we make each day either propel us forward or hold us back. Choosing to constantly harbor negativity, cling to a grudge and react with anger prevents you from living a peaceful life and poisons the people around you. If you knew you had a choice, would you chose to live that way? Probably not. The good news is, you DO have a choice.
