The
Choices Program began at Lehigh County Prison on March 9,1997. It grew to
serve four area county jails over the years and one long term drug
rehabilitation center in Lehigh County. Currently Choices is running full time
at Lehigh County Prison in Allentown Pennsylvania. The very first workshop was
facilitated by the three founders of the program, Carol Tertel, Janice LaVan
and Diane James. There were 25 participants from the drug and alcohol program
at the Lehigh County Prison. Choices is currently a permanent part of that
unit. For 22 hours every 3rd weekend of the month, Choices volunteer
facilitator from the community enter the prison and join up to 5 inmate
facilitator to present the concepts of the program to 25 new inmates.
Choices is an intensive anger management program that combines exercises, brainstorms, raps, and games along with role plays to give the participants a new perspective on how to handle everyday conflicts. Along with anger management, participants learn communication skills, alternatives to violence, community building, and listening skills. All of this is covered in the first level. Level 2 deals with all of these things and actually builds on them. In addition to that participants learn about mediation, quick decisions, racism awareness, forgiveness, and we begin working on taking responsibility for our own actions. Level 3 builds on the previous 2 levels and also works on helping participants learn boundaries, assertiveness, addiction awareness, relapse awareness, and recovery aspects of addiction. They further learn how to debate hot issues and start community plans for helping others. Each level takes 22 hours to complete and only those who complete the levels are permitted to move on.
There are 5 session in a weekend and no one is permitted to miss any sessions or any part of a session. They must attend every day and session and they must participate in each session or they cannot complete it and move on to the next level. Level 4 is a 22 hours, 5 session training course in which those who have successfully completed the previous 3 levels may learn about and practice facilitating the levels. Each one who completes level 4 may then go on to facilitate under the direction and guidance of a lead facilitator. Since the program began, those who go on to facilitate are usually the ones who leave the prison and do not return to it.
Many of the individuals who have trained in the jails to facilitate go on, after release, to help facilitate workshops in the community. Keenan House, a long term, in-patient drug and alcohol rehabilitation center has from time to time, sponsored Choices Workshops at their facility. Many of those times, facilitators who were trained in the jails and have been released will join other facilitators to help train participants at the Keenan House. Currently, Keenan House has two staff members who are trained and licensed lead facilitators and they run the workshop within that facility.
Choices also has a workshop designed specifically for children ages 8 to 18. Like the adults, the kids complete 3 levels of workshops and they are eligible for level 4 training. Once they complete their training, they are permitted to assist adult lead facilitators in running other workshops. Juvenile facilitators are permitted to accompany adult facilitators to all the various workshops with the exception of the prison workshops as children under the age of 18 are not permitted to enter a prison or jail as a volunteer. However, the juvenile facilitators are readily available for Keenan House, the community workshops and training programs and also for speaking engagements.
Choices facilitators do speaking engagements anywhere. So far they have gone to church services, Sunday school classes, high schools and various community events. They speak at youth group meetings and social clubs. There is no charge for these speaking engagements because the purpose is to raise awareness about the workshop and to allow open registration for future workshops. The speakers are very personable and entertaining while at the same time they pass along some very interesting messages in a variety of ways. Some do role plays about alternatives to violence and domestic violence. Some will demonstrate various basic principals of the program and others have unique stories to pass along. If your group is interested in having facilitators speak to them, please contact us.