Better Choices

The Better Choices Program is an early-intervention resource for young people who have been involved in a first offense of substance abuse, violence, or shoplifting/vandalism. The program is a short-term, goal-oriented, skills-building experience that assists participants using an asset-development approach, to:

• Improve their skills for understanding and managing emotions that have created personal challenges
• Expand their network of positive support
• Develop planning and problem-solving strengths needed for greater success in education, employment, arts, or athletics
• Gather essential information about critical areas of risk behavior they need, to make more informed choices
• Engage in an honest look at the impact of their harmful choices and make plans for appropriate reparations.

Better Choices is an adaptable framework for brief intervention of 4-6 sessions, which may be used as individual or group support in school or community settings. The program engages participants in a dialogue about building stronger connections with people, places, and things that matter in their lives. While our approach is free from shame or blame, the program respectfully promotes the development of a greater sense of personal responsibility in each participant. The harm reduction program is built on the belief that delivering the right amount of the right service, at the right time, will best help youth to redirect destructive behavior into truly better choices.

Better Choices began as a school-based intervention and has evolved into a program that has also become a useful model for court diversion and community justice programs. Currently, Second Growth receives constant referrals from professionals in the legal, education, healthcare, and social service systems.

Sponsored in part by Granite United Way and the Byrne Foundation.