Monday, July 25, 2011

Parent Project starts Sept. 20

Most of us in the field, working with high-risk youth know that parent involvement is the key to behavior change with difficult, behaviorally disordered adolescents. Yet, effectively educating parents in basic behavioral strategies is time consuming and repetitive. The Parent Project® is a parent training program designed for parents of strong-willed adolescents (those sometimes referred to as oppositional defiant, or conduct disorder). Since 2003, nearly 250 parents have attended Parent Project in Wood County and they report that there is important information for all  parents of teens.   

Topics include reducing family conflict and arguing, improving school performance and attendance, identifying and intervening with alcohol and other drug abuse, interceding with negative peer associations (including inappropriate dating relationships up to and including frank gang involvement) and helping parents to set effective applicable limits. Many parents attending Parent Project® have had difficulty identifying appropriate limits and enforcing consequences consistently. Parents who attend the Parent Project® are more likely to see their child’s attendance at school improve, and to require less school-based disciplinary resources as parents find powerful interventions at home with which to bring about change in their children. The motto of the Parent Project® is “Parents are the answer … when they have the tools they need.”

Presented in an educational format, parents are trained for a low fee of $20 for the accompanying 180-page workbook “A Parents’ Guide to Changing Destructive Adolescent Behavior.” There is no cost for the training itself. If the entire course is completed and the parent has attended all of the required sessions, the $20 fee will be refunded. Parents attend 18 hours of instruction for a cost of less than one session of private counseling.

The next session will be held Tuesday evenings from Sept. 20 through Nov. 22 at the Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N. Research Dr., Bowling Green. The first two classes will run from 6 to 9 p.m. The remainder of the classes run from at 6 to 8 p.m.

For more information or to register, contact Lorrie Lewandowski, Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N. Research Dr., Bowling Green, OH, 43402. Phone: 419-354-9010, ext. 113. E-mail: llewandowski@wcesc.org.
 
You also can find more information and register by visiting www.parentproject.com and click on “find a class in your area” in the top right-hand corner.

The local Parent Project program was featured in a radio news segment that was broadcast Jan. 27, 2010 on the Morning Show hosted by Dave Horger on WBGU 88.1 FM. Listen to the segment on BG Gizmo by clicking here.

Registration will be limited to the first 30 people responding.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Wood County youth gather join others for statewide leadership training


Fifteen Wood County High School Students representing gathered at Kenyon College in Gambier, OH last week with teens from across Ohio. The training, held July 17-21, was part of Ohio Teen Institute, a leadership training program that focuses on development of resistance skills to peer pressure and drug and alcohol abuse.

Student leaders in Wood County meet several times per year to be trained, to train others in these leadership strategies, and to show them ways to have a good time without bringing drugs and alcohol into the picture. Each summer, key student leaders gather at Kenyon College to re-energize, learn more, and prepare for the upcoming year.

Surveys returned by Wood County students after the retreat reported the training made them a better leader.
The majority of students also reported that they would use what they learned to help recruit new members to Teen Institute and help spread the group’s message in their schools.

Students who attended were:

Bowling Green:
Emily Drake

Eastwood:
Carli Kehres

Lake:
Kandie King
Karris Pugh
Daniel Ingle
Breanna Reardon
Amber Studyvin

North Baltimore:
Becka Adkins
Ashley Baisden
Ashlee Quantic
Tessa Reinman

Northwood:
Andrea Howard

Penta:
Jeremy TenEyck
Dustin Bolton

Perrysburg:
Ali Kopp

Additionally, the following students were chosen to serve as youth staff at the Teen Institute event:
Bridget Cushard (Bowling Green High School graduate)
Kaylyn Haynes (Lake High School)

Jeanine Lindquist, a prevention specialist with the Wood County Educational Service Center’s School & Community-Based ATOD (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug) Prevention Program served as adult staff at the state retreat.

Registration fees for participants were paid by ODADAS (Ohio Department of Alcohol & Drug Addiction Services) and by the Wood County Educational Service Center through a grant from the Wood County ADAMHS (Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services) Board.