Behavioral, Academic and Social Education

I have seen firsthand the positive impact that meaningful, supportive, adult relationships can have on youth. I was able to connect with all of the BASE youth over the summer in person to provide support and talk about events of their summer. What we did: eating lunch, going out for ice cream, playing basketball, playing Frisbee golf, and even catching some crayfish/tadpoles in a creek in Winchester.

I have found that students will often discuss things they are dealing with if they do an activity they enjoy. It also helps if you show them that you care, and have developed trust and accountability. Two of the BASE youth were able to maintain jobs over the summer. BASE youth talked about their current support systems and activities that they were going to engage in and were able to stay out of trouble with law enforcement. Students have returned to school. BASE students had to re-adjust to classroom rules and expectations for behavior.

So far behaviors have been a challenge for most students to not give in to negative peer pressure from others or seek negative attention from peers. However, BASE students are starting to realize that they are missing out on incentives for good behaviors and also receiving negative consequences for their actions. BASE staff has also really been focusing on students taking ownership/responsibility for each individual choice instead of blaming others. Within the next month, we are planning to start cooking some food items as incentives and also begin teaching some life skills to students.

Although we haven’t yet been able to do this yet, this is something that they/we are looking forward to. Today was a really good day behaviorally for all students. Students completed a full-day amount of online school assignments in the morning. They were allowed to watch a movie this afternoon and also received a drink of their choice at McDonald’s. We are always glad to reward students for good behavior!