This practical approach to planning restorative outcomes applies research on
positive youth development, neuroscience, and the
Circle of Courage resilience model.
All children need opportunities for belonging, mastery, independence and
generosity. When these growth needs are blocked, the youth is at risk. By
addressing these universal needs, a young person is able to take pathways to
responsibility.
Traditional assessment often assigns labels for disorders but offers scant
information about the inner logic and motivation of a young person in conflict.
In contrast, the
Developmental Audit fully engages youth in this reflective and
restorative process.
Forming this positive alliance requires specific strategies to CONNECT
with the young person,
CLARIFY challenges, and RESTORE bonds of respect. Problems are
not seen as personal pathology but as evidence of conflict in the ecology of
family, school, peer group, and community.
As a youth and adult explore key problems and life events, they identify how the
youth copes with challenging behaviour, both in resilient or self-defeating
ways.
The Developmental Audit also taps perspectives of others in the child's
world to tell this young person's personal story. When completed, the Audit
provides answers these key questions:
- How did this young person come to this point in his or her life?
- Where should we go from here to create a restorative outcome?
The Developmental Audit applies to a full range of settings including education, juvenile justice, treatment, the youth sector, and family and community development. These universal principles are relevant in all cultures and throughout childhood, adolescence, and the transition to adulthood.
This model for planning restorative outcomes is being employed in schools, treatment programs, juvenile justice, the youth sector, and any settings seeking positive strategies for dealing with challenging youth.
The Developmental Audit offers a new approach to educational and treatment planning with challenging students. When an airplane crashes, a careful study is made of all of the factors contributing to the disaster so preventative steps may be taken. When a kid crashes, we just build a thicker file documenting failure. Some youth confound all efforts to help them. Clearly they do not benefit from the usual discipline or consequences. The
Developmental Audit is designed for such students.
The Developmental Audit is a process for evaluation and planning educational and treatment interventions for students whose chronic or serious problems place them at risk from removal from school or placement in restrictive settings. The Audit is being used for functional assessments in special education and treatment planning in mental health and juvenile justice. The Audit is designed to determine why a youth continues in patterns of self-defeating and destructive behaviour.
The final Audit report tells the story of the young person to answer the important questions:
How did this young person come to this point in his or her life? Where can we go from here?
The first Developmental Audit was conducted with a young adolescent who had wounded other students in a gun incident sparked by school bullying. Based on the audit, the court ordered a period of detention followed by placement at Boys Town. The boy thrived and graduated from high school at Boys Town. When he left for college, he told Father Val Peter, "You gave me a name instead of a number."
A Developmental Audit was featured on the CBS Sixty Minutes II program. Dean was a bright student with ADHD and Tourette's Syndrome. After continual frustration and peer harassment in school, he became oppositional and began using alcohol. Because of minor delinquency, he came under court supervision and sent to a juvenile facility. For three years, Dean coursed through boot camps and youth prisons. He was abused, his behaviour deteriorated, and he became self-destructive. He and peers were being locked in isolation cells 23 hours a day for weeks at a time without any education or treatment. When youth created a disturbance, they were transferred to an adult prison and charged with serious felonies.
The court asked Reclaiming Youth International to conduct Developmental Audits on these youths. With this comprehensive assessment of Dean's problems and strengths, the court finally was able to make an informed disposition. The judge castigated the state for mishandling these boys. He removed Dean from prison and sent him to a residential group care program to receive the education and treatment he needed.
The Developmental Audit provides a new standard for planning interventions when youth are facing life-altering decisions in schools, courts and treatment programs. With a clear understanding about the real nature of the problems and strengths of a young person, we better able to create opportunities to reclaim these young persons.
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The Benefits of
Attending
this Seminar
- Respectful
- Youth focussed
- Individualised
- Phenomena Logical
- Skinning the onion from the inside out
- Value based
- Affirms that the child has the best insights to itself rather than diagnostic norms and other external benchmarks
PROGRAM
CONTENT
Session time: (9:00am –
4:00pm)
- Framework and Methodology of Developmental Audit
- Walkthrough of a sample Case
- Case Studies
- Feed Back and Discussion
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WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
This program is ideal for anyone who deals
with challenged youth is the following fields:
- Probation officers
- Childcare workers
- Teachers
- Residential workers
- Foster Carers
- Psychologists
- Social Workers
- Youth Sector workers
- Judiciary
- Not for profit
- Solicitors
- Legal Aid solicitors
- Youth Workers
- Youth Advocates
- Youth agencies
- Police
- Juvenile Aid workers
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PROGRAM
OUTCOMES
All the research on therapeutic growth and change emphasises the significant role of positive interpersonal connections in motivating sustained positive behaviour and change.
Rather than solely relying on external benchmarks such as diagnostic categories and population norms the developmental audit begins with a focus on the perspective of the young person including their experience private logic and aspirations.
This provides us a more effective key to understanding their problematic behaviours and a sounder foundation on which to construct an effective intervention plan. The respectful inclusive approach represents a first step in the process of establishing a productive therapeutic alliance.
From numerous studies of therapeutic change it has been clearly demonstrated that success is largely determined by the nature of the therapeutic alliance.
Your Workshop
Presenters:
 Dr. Larry K.
Brendtro, Ph.D., draws on 40 years of experience as a youth worker, teacher,
principal, program administrator, professor,
researcher, and licensed psychologist
specializing in problems of troubled children
and youth.
He is founder of Reclaiming Youth
International and editor of the journal
Reclaiming Children and Youth. For fourteen
years he was president of Starr Commonwealth
serving troubled youth in Michigan and Ohio
where he continues as Starr's dean of
research.
Dr. Brendtro is author of ten books and two
hundred articles and trains professionals
world-wide. He is an expert witness on the
treatment of troubled youth and serves on the
U.S. Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention. Dr. Brendtro
resides in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
 Howard
Bath, Ph.D. Since the early 1970's, has been involved
in the provision of services for young people, as a youth
worker, coordinator, then management roles. Currently
Director of the Thomas Wright Institute in Canberra, a
not-for-profit organisation. With years of experience as
an agency director and was inaugural Chair of the Child
and Family Welfare Association of Australia.
Howard is a registered clinical psychologist and has
studied and taught in both Australia and the USA.
Published in the areas of behaviour management,
out-of-home care, and family preservation, taught
undergraduate and postgraduate courses, has presented at
numerous conferences, workshops including being a
Professional Instructor with the Cornell University
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention project and is a RAP
trainer.
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Proudly presented by:
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Book your place now as these
seminars will Fill Fast
Just $67 including Workbook & Morning Tea
Group Rates available for 5 or more. Fully Tax deductible
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