researching and proposing a program for juvenile offenders with gang affiliations that would utilize the leadership and strengths based training to develop a leadership academy. Gangs feed off of the need for young men and women to feel accepted and valued and this play on basic needs forges gang activity. The objective of the program is to pull juveniles who have negative gang behaviors and use their desires to teach them to become positive leaders and carry that forward to the community when they release from Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration custody in Washington State. The paper should reflect the psychology of gang behavior and how leaders in gangs operate. It should reflect the psychological needs of teenagers to “fit in” and to feel empowered and accepted. The paper should discuss how gangs meet that need and how the perception of family becomes distorted. The paper should also discuss how peer to peer interactions have a greater affect between youth than adult to youth interactions. This is to say, that when teens coach each other, their peers respond better to their direction than when adults coach them. The idea of this possible program is to utilize a Youth Peer to Peer Leadership Academy to teach former gang members new and better ways of becoming leaders that will result in more positive outcomes that they can translate to the community after being discharged from incarceration thus reducing the recidivism rates. The research should be indicative of the types of classes that might be part of the academy and how strengths based leadership can work in combination with peer to peer interactions and the psychology of Dialectic Behavioral Therapy and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. I might also need a power point presentation to accompany it. The program should follow a SMART goals flow and should present how this leadership academy program will impact Juvenile recidivism, Substance Use/abuse, mental health. It should be laid out like an academy course with titles and explanations of the classes. Class titles can be:
Day 1: Leadership 101. Meeting Your Mentor. Leadership is Behavior not Position
Day 1B: DBT/CBT: What it means for peer to peer leadership influence. Making Your Impact and Growing Your Legacy.
Day 2: Leadership vs Money and Actions Speak Louder than Words. Behavior vs Values Systems
Day 2B: Youth Strengths Based Leadership 101 What Are My Strengths?
Day 3: How Do My Strengths Help Me Be Successful?
Day 3B: How Can My Strengths Help Me Avoid Substance Abuse and Other Addictive Behaviors?
Day 4: Leadership is about others not me! How Can My Strengths Positively Impact My Peers?
Day 5: How Can I Manage Barriers With Peers Who Become Treatment Interfering With Those I am Influencing?
Day 5B Crucial Conversations and Accountability
Day 6: Permission to Screw Up! Always Room For Growth.
Day 7: SMART GOALS, Forming the plan to make positive leadership an infectious disease (Leadership project).