Miami-Dade DOC Expands Unique ARISE Life-Skills Training and Curriculum

May 5, 2010 - PRLog -- MEDIA RELEASE
ARISE Foundation
824 US HWY 1 Suite #240
North Palm Beach, FL 33408
Phone: (561) 630-2021
Fax: (561) 630-2790

CONTACT: EDMUND BENSON
Office 561-630-2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Miami-Dade Dept. of Corrections expands its use of the unique ARISE training and life skills curriculum.

Since 1996, the Miami-Dade DOC has used the ARISE curriculum in its boot camp programs. It recently began using the one-of-a-kind ARISE staff training workshops to improve morale and decrease employee stress.

Stress is part of the job for a correctional officer. Working behind razor wire with often-violent offenders keeps COs in a constant state of alert. In an effort to combat workplace stress, the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections recently added the ARISE Drop It at the Door workshop to its comprehensive employee training program. The ARISE Drop It at the Door training is geared specifically toward those who work in the high-stress juvenile justice system. The training shows participants how to manage their anger, control stress, improve their interpersonal skills, communicate effectively, handle workplace gossip, deal with difficult people and much more. The workshop focuses on dropping negative emotions and baggage “at the door.” It strives to stop the boomerang effect of taking workplace stress home and vice versa.

“I feel the training was very informative in making me aware of controlling my actions and attitude towards others, whether it is towards my child or the inmates I supervise,” one DOC employee said of the ARISE Drop It at the Door training. “I learned that I am not alone in the feelings I possess when I am angry. I learned positive outlets to channel that anger. I now have the tools to enhance my quality of life.”

Several correctional officers also went through the two-day ARISE Life-Skills Group Facilitator training, affording them the expertise to teach life skills to the youth in their care so they can make better choices when they re-enter society. The training was held April 8–9, 2010, at the Miami Dade Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation located at 2525 NW 62 Ave, Miami, Florida. The newly trained Life-Skills Group Facilitators can now use their knowledge to conduct lively group discussions and life-skills lessons with the inmates in their care.

For almost 25 years, ARISE, a nonprofit foundation, has functioned as a developer and publisher of unique life-management skills curricula and staff training programs for those staff responsible for managing at-risk, incarcerated youth in detention centers and secure facilities, as well as other troubled youth. ARISE is also used as a powerful prevention tool for at-risk teenagers and young adults and the people who care for them.  ARISE programs consist of interactive group discussions and activities designed to break the ice quickly and capture the attention of even the most introverted participants. ARISE gives structure to well-meaning but disorganized programs, moving away from lectures and into dynamic group conversations conducted by ARISE-trained group facilitators who get youth talking about their own experiences. The ARISE curriculum is continually updated with new photographs, current statistics, inspirational biographies and original short stories that keep learners engaged and give facilitators the latest information.

ARISE relies on the support of its partners in Congress in order to provide its unique and important training programs. The training at the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections was made possible in part by the support of three ARISE congressional supporters: Lincoln Diaz- Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart.

Since ARISE was established over two decades ago, it has trained and certified 5,760 ARISE Life-Skills Group Facilitators who have taught over 4,055,708 documented hours of ARISE life-skills lessons in almost all 50 states. ARISE has been used successfully in Canada, Jamaica, England, Australia, Bahamas, Bermuda, New Zealand, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Bosnia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Botswana and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Requests for translation have also come in from as far away as Pakistan, South Africa, Cambodia, India, Vietnam, New Guinea, Singapore and China.

For more information, please call Edmund Benson at ARISE toll-free: 1 (888) 680-6100 or visit http://www.at-riskyouth.org.

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Provide valuable ARISE life skills and staff training to at-risk youth and the adults who care for them. We enable youth to achieve their highest potential as law-abiding citizens through ARISE group sessions conducted by well trained, ARISE facilitators.