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Teen Institute - Brief Program Description
The primary goal of the
South Carolina Teen Institute (TI) is to reduce alcohol and other drug
use, as well as related negative behaviors in youth through
peer-initiated, peer-led prevention programming in schools and
communities. TI provides education and training to South Carolina
high school students and adult advisors so that they can develop healthy
behaviors and sound life skills and design and implement effective
"Youth to Youth" initiatives for their schools and communities.
TI's weeklong summer trainings have several objectives.
- to provide factual and
relevant alcohol and other drug abuse information as well as its
relationship to other negative behaviors;
- to provide activities
that develop and enhance positive health concepts and life skills;
- to provide healthy
experiences that increase the knowledge of and appreciation for alternative
activities;
- to encourage and
facilitate further involvement in prevention activities and
- to establish a youth
network for prevention in South Carolina.
Evaluation results have
clearly demonstrated that TI is highly effective in deferring the
initiation of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use, as well as halting use
that had been initiated (Thatcher, 2000; Schnell and Schnell, 1997).
Furthermore, by utilizing a "multiplier effect" in which TI
trains its participants to be active agents for change in their schools
and communities, statewide anecdotal research of TI indicates that each
team of four to six students and their adult advisor proliferates
prevention messages to, on average, 1,100 fellow students through activities
and programs in their schools and communities. This broadens the
impact form the 75 to 80 teams that attended TI each summer to
nearly 80,000 of our state's youth each year.
Summer Training
Sessions:
Teams from throughout South Carolina meet together on a college campus
to participate in TI's weeklong summer training sessions. The
session generally begins at 11 a.m. on Monday and concludes at noon on
Friday. To utilize every possible moment, the days begin at 8:30
a.m. and run until 11 p.m. The typical team is comprised of four to
six high school students and an adult advisor who will work together during
the coming school year. each weeklong session is an intensive
learning experience that offers a variety of courses, lectures and
activities designed to assist the teams in developing and implementing
school and community prevention projects.
Follow-Through
Activities:
When they return to their schools and communities, the teams organize
their peers and begin implementing projects they planned at the summer
training. During this follow-through phase, a Teen Institute Reunion
is held each winter to re-energize participants, and each team receives
on-going support form the TI staff and their county alcohol and drug abuse
authority. This phase is the most crucial, because it gives students
an opportunity to effect real changes in their peers, schools, and communities.
As the follow-through phase concludes, the teams evaluate their efforts
and, based on their evaluations, begin planning for the next year. |