TRAC: Training and Redirecting Anger and Conflict for At-Risk High School Students

1. TRAINING AND REDIRECTING ANGER AND CONFLICT (TRAC)GROUPS RUN FOR AT RISK HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:A GRANT PROPOSAL Jinah Kim California State University, Long Beach May 2013

2. Introduction Problem • Youth violence is a substantial public health program in the United States, where 1.56 million incidents of victimization are perpetrators aged 12-20 years old. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007) • Study shows involvement in the juvenile justice system often alienates youth from the educational process and discourages them from educational success. Burdick, Feierman, & McIanerney, 2011 • Those involved with delinquency are more likely to have had negative educational experience before incarceration.Burdick et al., 2011 • Negative experiences include attending an under resourced school, repeating a grade, learning in restrictive special education placements, and being suspended or expelled. Burdick et al., 2011 • Involvements with the juvenile system worsen educational problems for adolescents because they failed to receive adequate educational services. Burdick et al., 2011 Goal • In order to assist students who have a history of misbehavior, the Training and Redirecting Anger and Conflict (TRAC) group was developed. Purpose is to fund the TRAC group, which is developed to provide community based programs that focus on reducing juvenile incarceration and recidivism rates.Burkett, Cha, Hampton, Heng, & Wang, 2011

3. Social Work Relevance • Pertains to studying a specific population of adolescents that engage in high risk behaviors that put them at risk of doing poorly in the school environment. • Decreases the rates of aggressive and violent behaviors as well as other high risk behaviors that enhance their negative behaviors, such as probation for felony convictions, delinquent activities, lack of social skills, impulsivity, poor anger control, and low moral reasoning. • Social workers are able to understand the effect of environmental surroundings, family issues, gang and drug exposure, and marginalization as stressors for this population. Burkett et al., 2011 • Program will provide service, respect the dignity and worth of the student by seeking to resolve conflicts the student may be facing, recognize the importance of student relationships by putting forth effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the wellbeing of the student. National Association of Social Workers, 2008

4. Cross-Cultural Relevance • Differences in gender, race, and ethnicity are not predictors of adolescents being involved in delinquent acts. • It is important to consider interventions regarding differences in background when attempting to reduce their involvement in the juvenile justice system. • Even though differences in gender, race, and ethnicity are equally likely to be involved in violent acts, it is necessary to have specific resources for students from different races, ethnic groups, and cultures, to be able to help students attain the knowledge, skills, and assets.

5. Methodology Target Population • The target population is at-risk adolescents who have difficulty maintaining their studies within traditional school facing suspension or expulsion from the school district due to various violations. • The intended population for the proposed program is for at-risk high school students attending the high schools of SAUSD. • The population in Santa Ana, California is predominantly low-income Latino. The ethnic breakdown is approximately 95.40% Latino, 2.30% Asian, 1.10% White—while Pacific Islander, Filipino, African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, and Biracial were each less than 1%. Santa Ana Unified School District, 2013 Strategies used to identify and select funding source • The process of identifying funding support for the proposed program include a comprehensive search utilizing the internet, database searches, and Long Beach Non-Beach Partnership Library for public and private funding.

6. Methodology (continued) Identify Finding Source Selected • The Walmart Foundation was selected based on the support of programs and focus to provide educational opportunities to mentor at-risk youths and prepare them for higher education. For 50 years, the foundation strived to lead and was dedicated in finding innovative solutions, meeting community needs, and offering great services Walmart, 2013 Sources used for the needs assessment • Online web searches and non-profit organizations with an interest in the adolescent and/or youth violence population, scholarly journals, and statistical findings. Projected budget range and categories • The estimated budget and amount of funding for the TRAC program will require $200,000. The funding will include salaries for a clinical social worker, two Master of Social Workers, and direct and indirect program costs.

7. Grant Proposal Program Summary and Description • The TRAC group is a 10 session evidence-based multimodal psychoeducational intervention, 1.5 hours in length each, to support the social behavior of aggressive adolescents. Students with a history of hostile and violent behaviors would be encouraged to participate in the groups as a mean to train and correct their behavior. • The goal of the proposed training and redirecting anger and conflict group is to provide a practical intervention for adolescents who struggle to obey rules and regulations and frequently found themselves involved with the juvenile justice system. Population Served • For the TRAC program, the target population is for students from ninth to twelfth grade at numerous high schools across SAUSD. Sustainability • For the purpose of this proposal, the TRAC program will be fully funded by the Walmart Foundation. Collaboration with high schools of Santa Ana Unified School District will ensure a location with utilities such as chairs and room where the groups will be held, and administration and staff will refer students who will participate in groups.

8. Grant Proposal (continued) Program Objectives • Objective 1: Introduce Arnold Goldstein’s Aggression Reduction Training -By introducing how the concepts focus on the individual’s problem solving skills, anger management, and moral reasoning, the individual can learn how to improve problem solving, learn increase control in anger, and learn to consider others morals and values.Pruitt, n.d. • Objective 2:Decrease Frequency in Delinquent Activities and Aggressive Behaviors and Express Acceptable Behaviors of Anger -By providing activities and exercises during session, students could grasp the concept behind each component and understand how it could be used in reality. • Objective 3: Reduce Recidivism Rates after Completing Group -By participating, they would learn to understand the concept of each component, and implement in situations where they were to face events involving anger and conflict, and reduce the rates of aggression Program Evaluation • Effectiveness of the TRAC groups will be assessed by pretest and posttests that each student completes. The Adolescent Questionnaire will be used for these pretests and posttests. • A pretest will be provided a week prior to the beginning of the first session and teachers will complete the Teacher Survey pretest at the same time, where responses will be completely confidential from both parties. Upon completion of the 10-week curriculum, the students will take their posttest; however, teachers will be given a week from the last session to observe their student and complete the Teacher Survey and submit to the group facilitators. The tests will then be measured through a one group pretest-posttest design which focuses on the pretest and posttest measurements and is structured to help evaluate the TRAC curriculum . Burkett et al., 2011

9. Lessons Learned/Implications for Social Work Lessons Learned: • It is essential to assess whether there is a need for the proposed program or proposal. • How to research journal articles or search for relevant searches on the internet. • Justify the need for the program by providing a thorough literature review, by looking at the history on the implementation of the program, the effectiveness of the program, and the interventions techniques utilized. • Writing a grant to request finding requires much preparation and research. • Plan the process in writing the grant and preparing for a well established project budget to fund the program. Implications for Social Work • A group which focuses on training and redirecting anger and conflict is relevant to the social work field because it addresses a significant problem which adolescents face. • Engaging in behaviors with negative effects directly affects the student as they obstruct their academic and social growth, which had been linked with delinquency and dropout. • Training and redirecting anger and conflict is relevant for social workers because it involves using many skills including: assessment skills, creating positive relationships, providing the guidance and resources student’s need, and collaborating with professionals to accomplish a common goal.

10. References Burdick, K., Feierman, J., & McIanerney, M. (2011). Creating positive consequences: Improving education outcomes for youth adjudicated delinquent. Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, 3(5), 5-28. Burkett, J., Cha, T., Hampton, J., Heng, J., &Wang, L. (2011). Training and redirecting anger and conflict curriculum: pilot study. [Unpublished manuscript]. Orange County Department of Education, Orange County, CA. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007). The effectiveness of universal school-based programs for the prevention of violence and aggressive behavior. MMWR: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.56(RR-7), 1-11. National Association of Social Workers. (2008) Code of ethics. Washington, DC, NASW. Santa Ana Unified School District. (2013). Santa Ana Unified School District. Retrieved from http://www.sausd.us/Page/1 Pruitt, S. (n.d.). Training and redirecting anger and conflict (TRAC) curriculum. Unpublished manuscript. Orange County Department of Education, Orange County, CA. Santa Ana Unified School District. (2013). Santa Ana Unified School District. Retrieved from http://www.sausd.us/Page/1 Walmart. (2013). Walmart. Retrieved from http://corporate.walmart.com/