Youth Programs

DEF guides and supports a variety of youth-focused organizations in the development of tailored decision education programs, working with these organizations to determine the best method for teaching decision skills within their environment and contributing to their overall program goals.

Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center

Through our partnership with the Champaign County Juvenile Detention Center in Champaign, Illinois, we are reaching youth already involved with the justice system. The decision skills training provides JDC residents an opportunity to consider the choices they can make to avoid returning and look to a better future. This partnership was profiled in Operations Research Management Science Today, a publication of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

Riekes Center

The Riekes Center for Human Enhancement has incorporated decision skills into its physical fitness programs, nature studies, and creative arts classes, such as film and photography. Work with Riekes resulted in The Himalayan Decision, a short documentary film about a choice faced by a group of students trekking in Nepal. An engaging piece that captures the interest of young people, the film has become a central component in DEF curriculum.

National Outdoor Leadership School

In collaboration with Eric Boggs, a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) course leader, DEF worked to incorporate elements of the DEF model within the NOLS wilderness experience program—a summer kayaking trip in Alaska. A DEF objective is to pursue a broader application: intensive decision adventures for outdoor adventure participants.

SASSY

In Menlo Park, California, DEF has been active with the School After School for Successful Youth (SASSY), an after-school vocational training program sponsored by JobTrain. DEF has worked with the counseling staff, the SASSY Youth council, and the SASSY Men’s Leadership Group. During the Spring 2008 Semester, DEF will teach a weekly decision education class as a component of the SASSY program schedule.