ARISE Master Trainer to Conduct Life Skills Training at Osceola Regional Juvenile Detention Center

May 8, 2009 - PRLog -- May 12 and 13, juvenile justice staff in the Orlando area will go through a powerful training workshop. Their mission: to learn how to inspire, educate and engage at-risk and incarcerated youth while teaching them vital life skills.

With help from a grant provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Mr. Perez will provide the future Life Skills Group Facilitators with the tools they need to reach troubled youth in their care. During this dynamic, energetic training session, participants will learn how to teach the youth to manage their anger, handle conflict, find and keep a job, avoid drugs, alcohol and gang life.

The Osceola Juvenile Regional Detention Center, is a 50-bed, temporary facility for youth being detained by the circuit court system. The OJRDC is located in Congressman Bill Posey’s 15th district. ARISE founders Susan and Edmund Benson hope to work with Congressman Posey in the future to show him the progress being made with troubled youth in his district. Most of these young people hope for something as simple as someone who will listen to them. ARISE Life Skills Group Facilitators listen to the learners and share their own life experiences with these young men and women.  ARISE Life Skills lessons inspire positive behavioral changes in these troubled youth, often reshaping their lives. Armed with knowledge and life skills instead of guns, many of the youth participating in the ARISE program become productive, law-abiding citizens. The training Plus ARISE'S easily understood curricula gives Group Facilitators everything they need to conduct their own interactive life skills program with confidence and compassion.

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, 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 unmotivated 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 currently being taught in over 70 facilities across the state, including the Salvation Army, Boys and Girls Clubs and alternative schools.

ARISE programs are also used in over 100 organizations in the District of Columbia, including 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 2007 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 youth 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 toll free:  1 (888) 680-6100 or visit ariselife-skills.org.