Teen Drivers: Rules of The Road by the ARISE Foundation can help you buy, maintain and safely operate a car.

• Kyle Grayden, 17, of Shorewood, Minnesota, glanced at her iPod while driving with her cousin and a friend, both 17. When she veered off the road and flipped her car into a ditch, she and her friend were killed.
• Heading home from practice, Jonathan Chapman, a 16-year-old high school basketball player from La Plata, Maryland, was reportedly speeding when his car rammed an SUV. He and three friends, ages 14 to 16, were killed.
• Five days after graduating from high school, Bailey Goodman, 17, of Fairport, New York, and four classmates were on their way to her family’s cottage. Moments after text messages were exchanged on Bailey’s cell phone, she slammed into an oncoming truck. All five teens were killed.

These three tragic stories from Reader’s Digest  illustrate the need to educate teen drivers about safety behind the wheel. Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the United States.

At the ARISE Foundation, protecting and nurturing teens is a big part of our life skills curricula. Rules of the Road is a manual just for teen drivers. This detailed, informative book covers all of the following and much more:

• Defensive Driving
• Road Rage
• Automobile Maintenance
• What to do if you are pulled over
• What to do if you have an accident
• Drunk Driving
• How to Insure a Car

…and more!

Most teens can’t WAIT to get their license…and most parents dread the day their child gets behind the wheel. Help ease the stress and educate teens on the huge responsibility of owning and operating a vehicle with the Rules of the Road book.

To order ARISE Rules of the Road or any of our other fantastic Life Skills books and materials, visit the ARISE website or call us at 1 (888) 680-6100.

Keeping Kids Off The Streets: How ARISE Helps Prevent Homelessness

What causes people to become homeless? Dr. Carl Cohen, a professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, suggests that a number of risk factors accumulate over time to create homelessness. Some of those risk factors include:

• age, race, ethnicity
• low income
• disruptive events in youth, such as the death of a parent
• prior imprisonment
• chemical abuse
• psychiatric disorders
• victimization
• poor social support

Many of these risk factors occur during youth. ARISE life skills lessons are a valuable tool for any homelessness prevention program because they attack the problem on multiple fronts. ARISE believes that it’s never too early or too late to help keep these kids off the streets, which is why the ARISE curricula offers life skills material for children from pre-k through the teen years. The ARISE life skills library teaches young people how to manage their anger, build their self esteem, communicate effectively, understand the importance of getting an education, avoid abusing drugs and alcohol, stay out of a gang, get and keep a job and reach their highest potential.

But it’s not just the material itself that does the trick. ARISE programs provide structure to any homeless prevention program. They get youth to open up and express themselves through group discussions and activities. Most of the time, young people just want to be heard. A lack of self-worth, a sense of belonging and the feeling that someone cares about them often drive youth to look for that attention and validation in dangerous ways. ARISE also trains people to use its curricula, turning instructors into mentors, always ready to listen, understand and value the opinions of the youth they interact with.

If you arm kids and teens with these basic life skills, you give them the foundation they need to stay off the streets. A person with an education, high self esteem, great communication skills, strong social connections and a body free of drug and alcohol addiction is unlikely to end up as a statistic.

For more information on how ARISE can help your homelessness prevention program, visit the ARISE website.

ARISE as a Gang Prevention Program

The ARISE Gang Prevention Program was featured on West Palm Beach’s FOX-29 News in their “Making a Difference in the Community” segment.

PLAY NOW (18.3MB)

Download ARISE Gang Prevention Media Kit (PDF)

There are a variety of reasons that teens join gangs. Some are looking for prestige and excitement. Others are looking for income, protection, or a sense of belonging.[1] There are also factors that help protect youth from joining gangs. Youth that use their free time in positive ways are more resistant to joining gangs. After-school programs, sports, and the like give youth a sense of purpose, relieve boredom, and give them connections with others.[2]

Given the trends in gang violence and youth gangs today, ARISE approaches gang prevention in multiple ways. First, ARISE has developed life skill curricula with over 260 practical life skill lessons, such as anger and conflict management, the importance of a staying in school, finding and keeping a job, self-esteem, healthy living, graffiti avoidance and more.

These lessons contain vital information youth need to make healthy choices in their lives. Armed with this practical knowledge, youth will be better able to resist recruitment into gangs. Youth will learn how to find legitimate employment and how to resist drugs, guns, and conflict. Each lesson contains all the needed background information on the topic as well as multiple engaging, fun activities.

ARISE recognizes that it is important to help youth before gangs solicit them. ARISE has a number of materials available to reach youth of all ages. The curricula have been specifically designed to be age appropriate. We have many different materials available for pre-K, K-grade 1, grades 2-3, grades 4-5, middle school, and teen/young adult. It is never too early or too late to start a gang prevention program.

ARISE not only provides valuable life-skill lessons, but we train instructors to effectively teach the material and serve as mentors to troubled youth. ARISE provides staff training for those working directly with at-risk youth in various settings (after school programs, secure facilities, churches, etc.). We offer on-site instruction to the staff in how to use the ARISE curriculum and instructional ARISE formula in order to receive the maximum benefits from the curriculum.

The intensive Life-Management Skills Instructor Training will instruct your staff on how to use the ARISE curriculum to the fullest. Among other things, trainees will learn how to manage difficult students, effectively run group activities, and successfully lead group discussions and brainstorming techniques.

The ARISE groups resulting from the combination of ARISE lessons and certified instructors provides the most powerful prevention to gang involvement. It is within these groups with the facilitation of the instructor that the magic happens. Not only are the youth exposed to vital information in an interesting and interactive way, but they also get to bond with instructors and other youth in the group. Youth are given the opportunity to share their feelings and experiences, as well as learn from their peers. The groups form a connection of caring and respect. The youth feel valued, understood, and listened to in ways that are often lacking at school and at home. They are given the sense of belonging they need to avoid gang involvement.

ARISE is one of a kind. It is the only known program designed to reach at-risk youth and juvenile offenders with reading difficulties at all ages and provide a comprehensive set of necessary life-skills. The ARISE program is perfect for people looking for a structured program to implement in a gang prevention program. The lessons are also easily added to after school programs, church programs, or any other organization that would like to prevent gang recruitment.

In addition to the ARISE curricula and training, ARISE also offers another program for gang prevention that can be implemented in any community called Grab a Future. For more information on this program, check out the Grab a Future page.

Please take a minute to view our powerful gang prevention short story entitled “Diamond in the Rough.”

ARISE Curricula that Address Gang Risk and Protection Factors

ARISE offers life skills curricula for those specifically looking to establish a gang prevention program. Please view our selection of Gang Prevention and Intervention materials in the ARISE Online Store.

Footnotes
[1] Howell. J.C. (1998). Youth Gangs: An Overview. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

[2] The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center website, “Youth Gangs,” retrieved March 7, 2007, from http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/teens/gangs.asp

Edmund Benson, co-founder of ARISE, celebrates his 80th birthday by contributing over 100 life management skills curricula to the international nonprofit community.

Edmund Benson, former at-risk kid and founder of ARISE Foundation, is celebrating his 80th birthday by giving a gift to the international nonprofit community: the creative licenses for all of the 100 ARISE life-skills curricula materials. Benson will allow the materials to be translated free of charge into any language (except Spanish, which has been done), for use in life-skills training programs around the world.

Benson and his wife Susan created the nonprofit ARISE Foundation in 1986. The foundation has since trained and certified over five thousand group facilitators who have taught over four million documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons in Florida alone. ARISE programs are also used throughout the US, in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Botswana and Kazakhstan.

ARISE life-skills lessons are designed to engage at-risk populations with interactive, entertaining, easy-to-understand lessons about important topics such as anger management, self-esteem, peer pressure, gang avoidance, drug and alcohol prevention, the power of networking, interviewing and keeping a job, domestic abuse, etiquette and manners, conflict resolution, bullying and violence prevention, health and hygiene, stress management, stranger safety and much more.

ARISE lessons have a memorable impact on troubled youth because, for the most part, they are conducted by ARISE-trained group facilitators who carry out guided group discussions with exciting activities that are easily understood and put into practice. ARISE group facilitators inspire conversation, involvement and interest. The ARISE life-skills lessons are not sequential. Each stands on its own, making them ideal for transient populations. Everyone starts fresh with each new learning experience.

ARISE life-management skills curricula are used in public, alternative and charter schools, juvenile justice facilities, residential treatment centers, faith-based organizations, Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s After School All-Stars program and organizations that educate orphans and other troubled youth around the world. The programs are written for underachieving pre-k, elementary, and middle school children, teens, and young adults with limited reading and writing capabilities. The ARISE life-management skills program succeeds with youth who have behavior issues and special needs. Those non-profit organizations interested in the ARISE free creative licensing program can communicate directly with Edmund Benson by calling 561-630-2021 (overseas); in the US, call (toll-free)888-680-6100 or visit the ARISE website at http://www.ariselife-skills.org to download the creative license kit and get more information. #####

ARISE gives Pinellas Marine Institute staff the skills they need to prevent at-risk juvenile offenders from dropping out of school.

 

NEWS RELEASE

ARISE Foundation
824 US HWY 1 Suite #240
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
Phone: (561) 630-2021
Fax: (561) 630-2790

CONTACT: EDMUND BENSON
Office 561-630-2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ARISE gives Pinellas Marine Institute staff the skills they need to prevent at-risk juvenile offenders from dropping out of school.

The two-day ARISE Life Skills Facilitator training workshop will show participants how to lead exciting ARISE group discussions and activities.

ARISE Certified Master Trainer Star Moran will conduct a two-day Life-Skills Facilitator Training at Pinellas Marine Institute in St. Petersburg, FL August 24 and 25. PMI is a Department of Juvenile Justice contracted program serving youth 14-18 years of age who have been frequently delinquent or expelled from public school. The school uses the ARISE curricula as part of its intensive dropout prevention program.

The ARISE Life Skills Instructor Certification program is part of a comprehensive approach to getting at-risk youth back on track. The freshly-certified instructors emerge from training with confidence and a thorough knowledge of how to engage troubled youth in active group discussions and awaken their sense of creativity, cooperation and self-worth. Not only are staff members taught how to build relationships with kids that rebel against authority figures, but they are also provided with the innovative ARISE life skills curricula. The ARISE library was designed to educate youth who may have trouble reading and writing. Each lesson appeals to learners of every age and scholastic ability. The pages are easy to read and packed with attention-grabbing activities that teach valuable life skills such as anger management, substance abuse prevention, gang avoidance, interview and job search skills, health and hygiene, STD awareness and much more.

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 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 grab the attention of even the most reserved 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 over 70 DJJ facilities across the state, including the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs and alternative schools.

ARISE programs are also used 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 5,760 Group Facilitators who have taught over 4,055,708 documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons across the United States. ARISE is currently being used in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia 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, or to sign up for training, please call Yasmin Isaacs at ARISE toll free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit ariselife-skills.org.

ARISE conducting a series of essential life skills instructor certification workshops in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Juvenile Justice staff from around the state of Florida will convene in Fort Lauderdale, FL for a series of two-day ARISE Life Skills Instructor certification workshops. Staff will walk away from the intensive 14-hour training sessions with the ability to confidently conduct ARISE life skills lessons with the incarcerated, at-risk youth at their Department of Juvenile Justice facilities.

During the workshops, juvenile justice staff are taught how to use the ARISE curricula to motivate, encourage and educate the youth on the crucial life skills they will need to stay out of prison and lead productive, law-abiding lives. The youth learn anger management and conflict resolution, how to find and keep a job, money management, how to maintain their health and avoid drugs and alcohol and much more.

These freshly-certified ARISE Life Skills Instructors use what they learned during the workshop to engage their learners and maximize the ARISE curricula. An ARISE trained instructor can mean the difference between a bland classroom session and an exciting, dynamic group experience, where the youth are involved and feel listened to and appreciated.

ARISE will offer four two-day Life Skills Instructor Certification workshops, on July 28th and 29th, July 31st and August 1st, August 6th and 7th and August 13th and 14th. Each training session will run from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM each day at the Broward Regional Detention Center, 222 N.W. 22nd Ave .

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 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 grab the attention of even the most reserved 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 over 70 DJJ facilities across the state, including the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs and alternative schools.

ARISE programs are also used 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 have also come in from as far away as Pakistan to translate the material into Urdu and Punjabi.

For more information, or to sign up for training, please call Yasmin Isaacs at ARISE toll free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit ariselife-skills.org.

Photo: ARISE Founders Edmund and Susan Benson shake  hands with Thompson Academy Facility Administrator Rodney Pagram after attending a talent show given by the youth.

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Teaching & Motivating Youth with ADHD/ADD and Learning Disabilities, brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Building a rapport with a learning-disabled, frustrated child or teen starts with tailoring your teaching style to their special needs. ADHD/ADD is a neurological disorder that impacts individuals in four main categories:

1. Attention: youth with ADHD/ADD have trouble paying attention and focusing on tasks, especially if they are not interested in them.
2. Impulsivity: lack of self-control can cause impulsive behaviors and choices.
3. Hyperactivity: many kids and teens with ADHD are “bouncy,” hyperactive, restless and on-the-go.
4. Boredom: Unless a task is very stimulating, those with ADHD/ADD often get bored easily.

ARISE lessons are specifically designed for people with difficulty reading, writing and staying focused. All guided group discussions and activities are structured, interactive, to-the-point and easy-to-understand.  Forget about boredom and acting out! These dynamic lessons will get even the most reserved students involved and learning about anger management, conflict resolution, job search and interview skills, health and hygiene, nutrition and exercise and much more.

Here are 15 ways to teach and connect with these unique, and often very bright, youth.

1. Give simple one-step directions.
2. Give both verbal and written instructions.
3. Maintain eye contact when giving instructions.
4. Help learners get started on an activity, then encourage them to complete the activity on their own.
5. When you ask a question, allow extra time for them to answer.
6. Encourage rather than criticize.
7. Focus on and praise positive behavior. Catch them doing good things and compliment them immediately. Praise and reinforce ALL good behavior: not interrupting, being patient, remaining seated, cooperating, participating in group activities.
8. Be sure they understand that it’s OK to ask for help.
9. Have them sit up front with their backs to other learners.
10. Let them doodle; it helps them focus and pay attention during quiet activities.
11. Hyperactive behaviors when seated are a release for the hyperactivity. It’s best to ignore them unless they are distracting for other learners.
12. Use activities that allow and encourage movement. Let the ADHD learner distribute and collect materials or erase the board.
13. If reading aloud frustrates them, do not ask them to do it.
14. Move closer to them when you want to get their attention.
15. Tell them what you want them to do, not just what NOT to do.

For more information, or to order from the ARISE curricula, please visit http://www.ariselife-skills.org or call 1 (888) 680-6100.

Taneka’s Tales: Urban Fables brought to you by ARISE Life Skills & Training

Everyone loves a good story. Stories are memorable. They inspire empathy, encourage imagination and have the capacity to be great teaching tools. Most kids and teens have trouble sitting still for lecture, but they will gladly listen to a story. Tell them a good tale, and you teach life skills through a “side door” in their mind.