You may be at your wit’s end if your teen gets into trouble for fighting, drugs or other negative behaviors, on top of defying your authority at home. If they’ve been in legal trouble you naturally want to help your teen straighten out his or her life. If nothing you’ve tried seems to work, don’t despair! Boot camps or programs that focus on developing and nurturing life skills can help them learn vital life lessons that will empower them to self-assess to turn their lives around without court, juvenile detention or a progression of run-ins with the law in adulthood.
Boot Camps Teach Teens to be Responsible
One of the primary reasons most troubled teens criminally act out is their inability to take responsibility for poor choices. These teens tend to be impulsive, limiting their ability to think things through.
Life skills-focused camps and programs help them develop decision-making skills within a context of accountability. Teens perform assigned tasks and are held accountable for completing them. They also experience consequences for their actions or in-action during their camp or program stay. This helps them slowly begin to make connections between their actions and the consequences that result.
Teens Learn To Respect Boundaries
Troubled teens tend to have difficulty respecting boundaries. They may defy authority at school or home which, if not addressed proactively with educated approaches to the boundaries of the law, will eventually lead to their need for criminal defense services.
life skills training positions teens to fully comprehend the importance and purpose of boundaries, including consequences for trespassing them. Life skills camps and programs teach youth how to follow rules. Consequences for misbehavior are administered without exception. This allows them to learn to operate in the world productively rather than using manipulation to get what they want.
Teens Learn to Be Productive
Troubled teens tend to engage in destructive rather than productive behavior, out of anger, fear or frustration. Destructive outbursts hinder their ability to focus energy productively. If left unchecked, they will harm themselves or others because they aren’t determining what is in their best interests or the interests of others.
Life skills training empowers at-risk youth to use their abilities to be productive no matter what they’re feeling. Over time they develop the emotional maturity to remain on task even if they’re angry or disappointed about something in their lives. Teens are taught coping skills to deal with their feelings so that they can remain productive and free from acting out.
Teens Discover Their Own Resilience
Although life skills boot camps and programs are designed to help at-risk youth to stop engaging in destructive behavior, they provide the most value by showing teens through experience that they have the strength and reasoning ability within them to cope with life’s challenges.
life skills training eliminates their escape mechanisms. By creating a situation where they are forced to deal with challenges instead of running away, life skills boot camps and programs help them learn to face their problems to emerge victorious.
Life skills camps like the ARISE for Change Training Program in Jupiter, FL, impart a sense of power and strength that comes from perseverance, which will redirect teens away from future destructive behaviors. According to a criminal attorney Orlando, Florida-based law firm, the juvenile court system is an intricate entity unto itself, requiring a body of legal knowledge that is different from the knowledge required in punitive cases in adult court.
5 National Boot Camps or Programs to Consider:
ARISE for Change Training Program
1-888-680-6100
http://at-riskyouth.org/training/arise-for-change/
Jupiter, FL 33458
ARISE for Change combines the evidence-based practice of Motivational Interviewing (MI) with ARISE Drop It at the Door training to provide at-risk youth with effective communication skills.
The Total Transformation Program (Available on DVD)
1-866-956-0618
http://www.thetotaltransformation.com
Westbrook, ME 04092
The Total Transformation Program, created by behavioral therapist James Lehman, offers practical, real world solutions for the most challenging problems parents face such as defiance, disrespect, lying and cursing, acting out in school, unmotivated behavior and more.
Sound Mind Sound Body Camp Academy – Lifting as we Climb Foundation
202-903-9540
http://www.liftingasweclimb.com
Washington, DC 20017
The Lifting As We Climb Foundation, prides itself on being a youth-to-youth mentoring organization, with a specific mission to uplift disadvantaged, at-risk youth between the ages of 12 and 18 by cultivating youth development in education, leadership, community service, health, physical fitness and career development.
Turn-About Ranch
1-800-842-1165
http://turnaboutranch.crchealth.com/
Escalante, UT 84726
Located on a working cattle ranch, the Turn-About program has students take concepts like leadership, teamwork, accountability and responsibility and put them into practice in a real-world environment.
Better Way Of Miami, Inc
305-634-3409
http://www.betterwaymiami.org/
Miami, FL 33127
Better Way of Miami, Inc. has provided one of the most effective long term treatment programs in the southeast for those seeking a real answer to their drug and alcohol addictions.
If your teen seems on the fast track to a destructive life, let go of the frustration, fear and despair and turn to a life skills boot camp or program for objective help.
Candace Bazile is an activism & social justice blogger/freelance writer/editor in Atlanta who accessed insight and research on juvenile crime defense found on the website of Katz & Phillips, P.A., criminal attorney Orlando, Florida. Candace’s goal is to provide socially productive alternatives to detention and also to direct readers to expert legal advice and defense services should they need them.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dtkindler/6463556713/