Services for At-Risk Youth
SHIELD relies on services that are already in the community. The program works closely with all of the local schools and the local Boys & Girls Club. During the first year of the program, 60 percent of youth who were referred to SHIELD received services in some form (Kent and Wyrick, 1998). Individual and group counseling were commonly used in both school and community settings. Issues covered in counseling varied based on the circumstances of the individual youth, but common themes included anger management, goal setting, pregnancy prevention, conflict resolution, and other coping skills. In some cases, treatment plans for youth were more specialized. For example, one youth who had a history of drug involvement and exposure to family violence served as an assistant instructor for a summer program on drug use prevention and received individual counseling related to setting and achieving goals. Informal school-based monitoring is also frequently included in treatment plans. Informal monitoring may be used in conjunction with other treatment or as a stand-alone treatment when the youth show a low level of risk in conjunction with many protective factors or when parental consent for more intensive treatment is not granted. When teachers and administrators are aware of the risk factors that a student faces outside the classroom and they are actively monitoring that student, they are more likely to detect and respond to early signs of problem behavior, abuse, or neglect.| Previous | Contents | Next |
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| Law Enforcement Referral of At-Risk Youth: The SHIELD Program |
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