Life Skills (Personal and Social Development)
Life Skills
(Personal and Social Development)
Changing Habits and Achieving New Goals to Empower Success (CHANGES)II is a 60-day life skills program designed to prepare students for release. Residents who are within two years of projected release are eligible to participate in the program. The program content includes personal development, healthy relationships, living responsibly, drug education, health maintenance, emotional development, employment and other related life skills.
Cognitive Intervention, a 60-day program developed with the help of the National Institute of Corrections, teaches students to meet their needs without trespassing on the rights of others.
Through instruction and exercises in interpersonal problem solving, the program helps students:
Develop personal accountability and responsibility
Develop anger management
Develop impulse control
Overcome criminal thinking
Create positive attitudes and beliefs
Set goals.
WSD offers a 30-day Parenting & Family Wellness program at a few facilities. The curricular content of the Parenting & Family Wellness program includes The Middle Way Parent Education Program, a communication-based, interactive program that supports the development of healthy family relationships. The program addresses compassionate assertiveness, empathic/active listening, empowerment and other skills to strengthen family relationships. Participants engage in an introspective process of positive personal change.
A 15-day program entitled Perspectives and Solutions is offered at intake facilities. In this progressive program, students explore cultural diversity, personal identity, stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination (including racial, ethnic, religious, gender, age, sexual orientation, and physical disability). Students also receive extensive exposure to problem solving techniques.