Initially developed for incarcerated youth re-entering the community with funds provided through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1998, the program was pilot tested with adjudicated youth in Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice DeKalb Multi-Service Center, and is now being used with "vulnerable" elementary and middle-school male youth in the DeKalb County School System suspected of gang activity, alcohol or marijuana use, acting out and/or in danger of academic failure.
Small group sessions consisting of 4 to 16 people are conducted weekly for 45 minutes to one hour for 13-14 weeks. The program may be delivered in schools, youth detention centers, residential facilities or almost anywhere that is big enough to comfortably accommodate the participants. One or two skilled facilitators lead the group, one of whom must match the gender and ethnicity of the majority of group members. The facilitators are credible and skilled in group dynamics.
The program is based on evidenced-based research conducted by:
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The Omega Boys Club’s Street Solider program developed by Joseph Marshall, Jr. and Jack Jacqua. This program is a nationally recognized youth development and delinquency prevention program that serves African-American youth ages 11-25 in the San Francisco Bay area and southern California. The message to youth is straightforward: avoid drugs, take personal responsibility for your actions, and learn to recognize and follow your own internal leader. The program has been studied extensively by San Francisco State University.§ Risk-Focused Prevention developed by Drs. J. David Hawkins and Richard F. Catalano of the Social Development Research Group in 1984. The overall premise of this approach, now the gold standard of the prevention field, stresses than an effective way to influence young people’s development is to identify and reduce risk factors that support antisocial behavior and promote protective factors that increase strong social bonds and buffer or protect children against problem behaviors.
§ The Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets. These 40 assets are embodied into two components – internal assets and external assets are considered critical factors for young people’s growth and development.
This program has also been successfully implemented with vulnerable male and female youth in the DeKalb Children’s Shelter.
To Catch A Falling Star
