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Recovery high schools have become a key setting supporting the adolescent recovery process over the last fifty years. Salvaging a Teenage Wasteland provides the first major historical account of the recovery high school movement from its beginnings in the alternative schools of the 1970s that overlapped with the first adolescent substance use treatment programs. Our understanding of recovery high schools has evolved along with our understanding of addiction and recovery themselves. Finch explores the development of the earliest programs in South Carolina, Texas, Maryland, and Minnesota, which served as roots for later growth. He compiles interviews from dozens of pioneers, including early administrators, teachers, and students, and reviewed hundreds of historical artifacts to trace the creation and expansion of recovery high schools. The story that emerged was closely connected to some of the major events of the times, from the counterculture movement of the 1960s, to the Drug War and advent of adolescent treatment in the 1970s, to the anti-drug campaigns of the 1980s, such as “Just Say No”. Cultural touchstones such as Woodstock, school desegregation, high school drug raids, and fear of cults and teenage drug use figured prominently in the creation of recovery high schools, all in an effort to create sober school spaces for teenagers. The programs that evolved are now one of the major components of addressing adolescent mental health and substance use issues.

Helping the Struggling Adolescent is your first resource to turn to when a teen you know is in trouble. Whether you're a youth worker, counselor, pastor, or teacher, this fast, ready reference is a compendium of insight on teen problems from abuse to violence and everything between.Help starts here for thirty-six common, critical concerns. Topics are arranged in alphabetical order. Each chapter gives you essential information for several vital questions:What does the specific struggle look like?Why did it happen?How can you help?When should you refer to another expert?Where can you find additional resources?Arranged in three sections, this book first gives you the basics of being an effective helper, then it informs you on the different struggles of adolescents. The final section--a key component of this book--supplies more than forty rapid assessment tools for use with specific problems.Helping the Struggling Adolescent organizes and condenses biblical counseling issues for teens into one extremely useful volume. Keep it in arm's reach for the answers you need, right when you need them.

A child at loose ends needs help, and someone steps in--a Big Brother, a Big Sister, a mentor from the growing ranks of volunteers offering their time and guidance to more than two million American adolescents. Does it help? How effective are mentoring programs, and how do they work? Are there pitfalls, and if so, what are they? Such questions, ever more pressing as youth mentoring initiatives expand their reach at a breakneck pace, have occupied Jean Rhodes for more than a decade. In this provocative, thoroughly researched, and lucidly written book, Rhodes offers readers the benefit of the latest findings in this burgeoning field, including those from her own extensive, groundbreaking studies.Outlining a model of youth mentoring that will prove invaluable to the many administrators, caseworkers, volunteers, and researchers who seek reliable information and practical guidance, Stand by Me describes the extraordinary potential that exists in such relationships, and discloses the ways in which nonparent adults are uniquely positioned to encourage adolescent development. Yet the book also exposes a rarely acknowledged risk: unsuccessful mentoring relationships--always a danger when, in a rush to form matches, mentors are dispatched with more enthusiasm than understanding and preparation--can actually harm at-risk youth. Vulnerable children, Rhodes demonstrates, are better left alone than paired with mentors who cannot hold up their end of the relationships.Drawing on work in the fields of psychology and personal relations, Rhodes provides concrete suggestions for improving mentoring programs and creating effective, enduring mentoring relationships with youth.

Seven million youngsters--one in four adolescents--have only limited potential for becoming productive adults because they are at high risk for encountering serious problems at home, in school, or in their communities. This is one of the disturbing findings in this unique overview of what is known about young people aged 10 to 17 growing up in the United States today. The book explores four problem areas that are the subject of a great deal of public interest and social concern: delinquency, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and school failure. In examining these problem areas, Dryfoos has three objectives: to present a more cogent picture of adolescents who are at risk of problem behaviors and where they fit in society; to synthesize the experience of programs that have been successful in changing various aspects of these behaviors; and to propose strategies for using this knowledge base to implement more effective approaches to helping youngsters succeed. Among the key concepts emerging from this study are the importance of intense individual attention, social skills training, exposure to the world of work, and packaging components in broad, community-wide interventions. Schools are recognized as the focal institution in prevention, not only in regard to helping children achieve academically, but in giving young people access to social support and health programs. The author also proposes comprehensive youth development initiatives at the local, state and national level, based on programs shown to be effective in real practice. This landmark, state-of-the-art study represents an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the welfare and current problems of youth, including psychologists, sociologists, school administrators, state and federal officials, policymakers, and concerned parents.