Skills for Responsible Thinking (SRT)
Skills for Responsible Thinking (SRT) is a comprehensive, community-based program for 13 to 18-year-olds who are at high risk for engaging in violent or criminal behaviors or substance use. SRT’s curriculum of 17 peer-driven group sessions is designed to confront, educate, motivate, support and reinforce students’ individual ability and desire to make socially conscious choices and change underlying anti-social beliefs.
Such change is possible because the way one acts in a given situation is preceded by what one thinks about the situation, about others and about self. Through imitation, instruction and reinforcement, youth can learn to internalize alternative attitudes, values and beliefs that support pro-social behavior.
The first segment of the SRT program focuses on increasing motivation to change, identifying attitudes that support criminal behavior, challenging those attitudes and replacing them (cognitive restructuring) with prosocial ones.
The second includes lessons titled Peer Pressure, Victim Awareness, and Advanced Social Decision-Making. In a controlled discussion group of peers, facilitators introduce students to a series of hypothetical and concrete dilemmas that stimulate consideration for victims, the need for a formal justice system, and responsibility for one’s own behavior. Research shows that presenting and discussing moral dilemmas in such a setting allows students to reason at varying levels and advances their ability to reach moral resolution.
Final lessons tie the material together by taking students through the steps involved in relapse prevention. Students also make specific plans for preventing a return to problematic behaviors.
Two new program components comprise a post-graduate session to review skills, evaluate the effectiveness of the relapse prevention program and revise as necessary. The second is a community orientation session that provides parents, caregivers and providers with information and tools to reinforce the skills the students learn in SRT.
Program Goals
- Reduce the risk of violent or criminal behaviors or substance use.
- Understand how values and beliefs affect feelings and behavior.
- Identify, challenge and replace the values, attitudes and beliefs that rationalize, justify or minimize problematic behavior.
- Learn the essential values of individual and collective well-being in a diverse society.
- Accept responsibility for actions.
- Gain insights that lead to good choices in tough situations.
- Weigh the impact of antisocial behavior on self and others.
- Develop and practice methods of countering harmful peer influences .
- Design plans to deal with “risky” situations.
Adolescent Anger Management Program
Back on Track announces the availability of AAMP
Do not teach your children never to be angry; teach them how to be angry.Lyman Abbott
Back on Track’s Adolescent Anger Management Program (AAMP) is a cognitive-behavioral group that incorporates motivational interviewing strategies. The primary goal of this program is anger control. AAMP is provided in a closed group format, with 13-ninety minute sessions. It focuses on practical, real-life examples from the youths’ lives in order to improve the likelihood that the youth will apply these skills during their day-to-day activities. This is accomplished through focusing on coping strategies, self-control, and stress management.
Program goals include:
- Developing an understanding of what anger is.
- Developing insight into their own anger style and individual triggers.
- Becoming aware of physical cues associated with anger.
- Developing skills that manage anger.
- Becoming aware of what their mind tells them and how this affects their level of anger and behavior.
- Developing an understanding of how to achieve constructive consequences rather than destructive consequences.
Appropriate referrals will include youth who…
- Ages 13-18
- Living in York or Cumberland County
- Have a history of aggression or anger that has interfered with their functioning or has lead to consequences such as suspension from school, removal from programs, legal sanctions, and relationship problems.
Enrollment & Referrals
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 and parent/guardian that entails a thorough review of their background, areas of risk and juvenile offense history, when appropriate.
Back on Track strives to structure classes for groups of like-minded students in an effort to minimize the exposure of lower-risk students to newer and more negative behaviors and attitudes. If you are a provider considering referring a student to one of our classes, we strongly encourage you to call and ascertain that they are an appropriate candidate.
Individual funding arrangements can be negotiated based on need. Back on Track accepts some private insurance, Mainecare, and private pay, and can bill DHHS, BDS and the Department of Corrections.
To make a referral we require that a referral form, Release of Information, and background information be submitted for review. After the provider has submitted this paperwork they should communicate with the student or his/her guardian that they are responsible to call us to make an appointment for an initial intake. For copies of the referral paperwork or if you would like to make a referral to Back on Track or to receive more information please contact Kirsten Milliken, Executive Director at:
Back on Track
at Portland West
181 Brackett St.
Portland, ME 04102
(207) 775-0105
fax: (207) 780-1701
email us
