NCJ Number
184644
Editor(s)
Bonnie Zucker Goldsmith
Date Published
2000
Length
172 pages
Annotation
This leader's guide gives adults specific practical methods for helping young people identify their strengths and develop resilience, based on 30 true stories written by teenagers in the Youth Communication writing program in New York City.
Abstract
The guide is intended for adults who work with teenagers in many capacities, as teachers, social workers, youth group leaders, clinicians, prevention specialists, counselors, and independent living coordinators. The guide explains how adults can use stories in the anthology to build resilience and defines resilience as persistence in the face of adversity. The guide includes discussion, writing, role playing, and other group activities to help teenagers deepen their understanding of how the young authors who wrote the stories met the challenges facing them. In the process of reading the stories and participating in the activities suggested in the guide, teenagers can discover and build on their capacity to face difficult situations and struggle through them. The guide provides introductory material on resilience as a strengths-based approach to working with teenagers. It may be especially useful for adults working with teenagers who face such difficult problems as drug abuse, incarceration, foster care, bereavement, and early pregnancy, but it may also be used in the regular classroom as part of the curriculum in social studies, life skills, or language arts. 33 references