About Back On Track
Back on Track was founded by Kirsten Milliken, Ph.D. and was established as a nonprofit organization in 2004. Our programs challenge adolescent attitudes and beliefs that influence their likelihood of engaging in criminal or antisocial acts. We provide evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that are targeted at reducing antisocial thinking and behavior and replacing these with more community minded set. Treatment is based on the philosophy that antisocial behavior is learned behavior and unlearned through the development of new thinking skills and coping skills. We believe that all young people are capable of leading happy and productive lives if given the education, encouragement and guidance to do so.
Back on Track offers programs that are time-limited and curriculum based. Our curriculum seamlessly incorporates the use of Motivational Interviewing techniques, role-play, and strategic use of positive reinforcement. Our programs are most effective for high risk juvenile offenders or at-risk youth that need to develop effective use of pro-social skills and thinking. All groups are comprised of teens that share similar risks, needs and levels of responsivity.
The Back on Track philosophy of treatment is based on the spirit of Motivational Interviewing. While some traditional counseling approaches treat the therapist as the “expert” on identifying and remedying the client’s problem, we believe that the client has the expertise on their situation and possesses the resources and motivation for change. Our facilitators’ goal is to affirm the students’ capacity for self-direction and enhance the youth’s intrinsic motivation by focusing on their own perceptions, goals and values.
The success of any behavioral intervention lies first in accurate assessments of the juveniles’ risks and needs, both at individual and aggregate levels. Because of this, Back on Track incorporates a comprehensive intake process with the prospective student that entails a thorough review of their areas of risk and juvenile offense history, when appropriate. All of our programs and intakes are conducted by well-qualified and well-trained staff through the systematic use of an established treatment curriculum. Not only are our facilitators all highly reputed professionals in the provider community, each has a minimum of two years experience working with at-risk teens, holds a LSW or higher license, and receive weekly individualized clinical supervision.
Every course begins with a Parent and Provider Orientation. These orientation sessions are specifically designed to provide the adults who work and care for our students with knowledge of the basic skills that we are teaching during the classes. Research demonstrates that a team approach to reinforcement increases the likelihood that students will make effective and consistent use of their new skills when faced with every day life challenges. The orientation is not meant to be a training to allow staff to teach these skills to other students. It provides only the basics of each skill and the means to reinforce the skills with students who have learned and practiced them in our classes. We believe that if these skills are taught in isolation then that is how they will be used.
Our staff is dedicated to the mission of Back on Track – to educate, confront, support, and inform youth that are at risk for aggression, substance use and other antisocial behaviors in order for them to make changes toward more socially responsible attitudes, thinking and choices. We believe that youth are most successful in making lasting behavioral changes when their instruction and practice of new skills are supported and reinforced in their immediate environment. With over 30 years of collective experience in working with at-risk, troubled and corrections-involved youth, Back on Track is the long awaited answer to Maine’s need for community-oriented, integrated, and targeted treatment intervention for our socially vulnerable youth.