This document outlines the Breaking The Chains program, which aims to help teens overcome negative influences in their lives through mentorship and community involvement. The program involves a weekend retreat where teens process emotional issues, acknowledge their talents, and connect with mentors. Mentors then work with teens for 3 months, meeting weekly to set goals and participate in community outreach. The program focuses on helping teens recognize their value and find purpose to make positive life choices.
2. Mission Statement ~ Breaking The Chains is committed to helping individuals recognize and gain freedom from the negative chains that prevent them from living a healthy and purposeful life. This will be accomplished through professional mental health services partnered with intense committed mentorship and consistent community involvement.
5. Breaking The Chains is a program created to help teens understand the outcome of their choices; exploring the difficulties in their life that are leading them to drinking, drugs, promiscuity, and other life threatening escape methods.
6. When teens discover their unique value and significance, they can begin to make positive changes in their lives.
7. Our teens are encouraged to acknowledge their talents and passions and to direct their energy into something positive. We are challenging teens to invest in others and to never lose sight that they always have a choice to do what is right.
8. We have been working with teens for over 12 years. The settings include teens in juvenile hall, social service system, group homes, schools, abroad in underdeveloped countries, family inhome services, and in private practice. We believe now, more then ever before that there is a crisis in our schools and communities across the nation and across the world.
9. After speaking with teens over many years, the one thing that bonds them with a common theme is this; they do not feel that they have a purpose now as teenagers, they are not valued, and have hurts and emotional scars that keep them stuck in their negative cycles and patterns.
10. Breaking The Chains Therapist Rachel Clark has helped develop a program, Choices and Consequences with the Superior Courts of Orange County. The program has been running for 3 years and continues to grow. She speaks to thousands of teens about their chains and what holds them back from releasing hidden pain and finding their purpose in life.
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12. We have had an overwhelming response from teens who want to continue these conversations. Through these conversations over the years it is clearly evident that the poor choices teens are making relate to pain, grief, loss, pressure, loss of connection, and not feeling accepted.
13. While educating teens on the affects of alcohol and drugs is important and the consequences related to its use, the subject must go deeper, or we are just putting a band-aidon the real issues and the crises.
14. Why do teens drink and do drugs in thefirst place? If we start with this question, maybe we can begin to understand the interventions needed to resolve this national crisis. When teens begin to value their lives and realize that they can make a difference in their community, that they have a purpose, something begins to happen. We have see this first hand with the youth that we reach out to.
15. Our program will focus on the symbolism of CHAINS…We all have them, low self-esteem, insecurity, anxiety, anger, depression, loneliness, addictions, grief, loss, trauma, lack of motivation, rejection, abandonment, and abuse.
16. The list goes on but the negative patterns, choices, and feelings do not have to. These chains keep us confined and restrained from living out healthy, productive, and purposeful lives. Often we need to allow the negative messages attached to our pain to be broken… set free. The pain is real but the messages attached are not.
26. Our Mentor Director Ken Henry, will oversee the mentors during the three month time period. He is determined to raise up mentors across the nation, instilling hope again in the lives of our teens and their families. His experience includes supervising group homes of developmentally delayed teens, working one on one with at risk teens, and facilitating the care and treatment of emotionally and abused teens. Ken is currently doing mental health and case management work with former foster young adults. Over the last two years Ken has been an active mentor for at risk teen boys at the Sunburst Youth Academy, ran by the National Guards in Southern California. He is dedicating his life's energy to helping troubled teens gain direction and purpose in their lives.
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29. Develop skills to connect with other peers in positive ways through self-empowerment exercises.
32. There will be one uniquely designed challenge surprise in the community during the last month of the program. This will be directed towards showing our teens how far they have come through a meaningful and challenging experience.
33. Assessments of the teen’s progress throughout the journey, Feedback will be given by mentors, mentor director, therapist, and most importantly the mentees (peer feedback is one of the most powerful tools in our healing circles)
37. At the end of the three months each teen will be given a personalized resource book to utilize in the years to come. Within the books are: Encouraging messages from the entire Breaking The Chains Group (including peers) Photos of their journey, re-caps of special life changing markers and experiences that each teen had Goals met that were set at the beginning of the program Goals still needed to be met Contact list of resources within the community that teen used while in program Contact list of resources within the community that teen can utilize to work towards goals not yet met List of outreach events and organizations that teen can continue to invest in using their unique gifts and talents List of emergency numbers if teen is in trouble physically or emotionally List of contacts of individuals in the community who have committed to helping our teens develop their talents and passions List of churches, spiritual leader contacts, and resources for small groups on a spiritual journey together Contact numbers of Therapist, Mentor Director, Mentor, and peers (if consent given) Housing resources Contact list of local colleges List of financial aid resources These books will be given to the teens at our graduation ceremony (locations will be determined throughout the year)
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39. Our team is a group of highly dedicated individuals who share in the passion to walk along side our hurting teens, giving them a hope and a future. We are a creative team that will break the stereotypical “therapeutic” intervention techniques that simply do not help our youth. This message of healing needs to be heard, it needs to be seen, and teens need to know that they are not alone. Please stand with us in this fight to keep our teens alive…
40. Stand with us to Break The Chains that restrain the next generation from living out healthy, prosperous, and purposeful lives.
41. For More Information on our Breaking The Chains Program or Therapeutic Services, please call 707-217-9033 0r visit www.rachelclarkonline.com
