NEW! Girls Circle, The Council for Boys and Young Men, & Mother-Daughter Circle - Girls Circle is a structured support group for girls ages 9-18 where they take turns talking and listening to one another respectfully about their concerns and interests.  Girls Circles are most often held weekly for 1 1/2 to two hours. The girls express themselves further through creative or focused activities such as role playing, drama, journaling, poetry, drama, dance, drawing, collage, clay, and so on. Gender specific themes and topics are introduced which relate to the girls’ lives, such as being a girl, trusting ourselves, friendships, body image, goals, sexuality, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, competition, and decision-making.  The purpose of the program is to encourage the development of strength, courage, confidence, honesty, and communication skills for girls; and to enhance girls' abilities so they are able to take full advantage of their talents, academic interests, career pursuits, and potential for healthy relationships.

The Council for Boys & Young Men is the counterpart to Girls Circle.  The Council is a strengths-based group approach to promote boys’ and young men’s safe, strong and healthy passage through pre-teen and adolescent years.  Each week, a group of six to ten boys of similar age and development meet with one or two facilitators for 1.5 to 2 hours. These meetings are held for ten weeks or more, depending on the capacity of the setting.  The Council aims to promote boys’ natural strengths, and to increase their options about being male in today’s world. The Council challenges myths about how to be a “real boy” or “real man”. It engages boys in activities, dialogue, and self-expression to question stereotypical concepts and to increase boys’ emotional, social, and cultural literacy by promoting valuable relationships with peers and adult facilitators.  The group format includes warm up activities, a “council” type check in opportunity, experiential activities that address relevant topics, and a reflection and group dialogue component. The focused activities may include group challenges, games, skits or role plays, arts, and so on.

Mother-Daughter Circle is for mothers or female caregivers and their daughters join together in combined and age-appropriate groups to strengthen their bonds through shared listening, creative expression, and skill building. "Heart of the Matter" curriculum promotes empathy, communication skills, stress reduction, setting limits and honoring boundaries, exploring meanings and messages about female identity, identifying relationship accountability, and experiencing affirmation together. Kent County Health Department is the vendor for this program.

NEW! Adventure Diversion Program - The Adventure Diversion Program is an alternative intervention program for youth in Kent County who have had involvement with the Department of Juvenile Services and are at-risk for out-of-home placement.  The program is a mandatory supervised evening reporting center that provides experiential learning and pro-social skill development, blended with outdoor recreation activities.  This program is based on the Adventure Diversion Program operating successfully in Carroll County, and is a collaborative effort between the Kent Youth, Inc., the Kent County Local Management Board, and the Kent County Department of Juvenile Services.  The goal is to provide positive events in the lives of youth to help them grow as individuals, work as a team, develop leadership skills and learn an appreciation of the outdoors.  To achieve this goal, the program provides a combination of outdoor wilderness activities and experiential learning.  Some of the outdoor activities include hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, and nature exploration.  Youth are taught skills for these activities through a core subject model that blends practical knowledge with team and character building exercises designed to challenge the youth to develop new ways to respond to relationships, stressors, and responsibility.  Another growing component of the program is community service (e.g. stream cleaning, landscaping, assisting community groups) to promote a level of citizenship and commitment with in the group.

Youth 2 Youth - Youth 2 Youth (Y2Y) is a youth-led program that helps teens to develop a "real voice" in addressing issues important to them. Ownership in and identification with this program has proven to be a positive means for enforcing a drug free lifestyle. Youth to Youth sends a clear-cut “No” use message to tobacco, alcohol, or any other drugs at any time. Youth 2 Youth incorporates four strategies into its programming:  Information; Personal Growth; Research and Exposure to Alternatives; and Environmental Change.  Meetings include leadership training, prevention education, peer mentoring training, and opportunities for planning social events.  The program holds at least one fundraiser, one large social event, and a “Take It Back” community briefing on underage alcohol usage during the contract period. Students will have a chance to educate 5th and 6th graders on the dangers of substance use. Youth 2 Youth participants will research prevention strategies as well as non-substance activities in the community to better mentor their peers towards making better choices and will make presentations.  Activities may also include photographing problem areas where drugs and alcohol are used or exchanged, and presenting this information with recommended changes to local government or other groups.  In July 2010, students will attend the Youth 2 Youth conference in Rhode Island.  During this three day conference, youth will network with other teams, be provided with current information for creating informed decision making, develop a stronger sense of self, and become advocates for positive community change.  Women in Need is the vendor for this program.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor - This program provides funding for one Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor to provide education, support and guidance to teens who have experienced mild to moderate chemical use - and their parents. Using dignity and respect, she will assess and provide services to young people to make healthier lifestyle choices. The Counselor may also work with parents and guardians to learn healthy communication skills and the importance of establishing family rules surrounding chemical use.  The Counselor primarily uses the model program, Teen Intervene.  The Stages of Change framework may be used instead if it is better suited to the circumstances of that student. The Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor works primarily from Kent County High School, Kent County Middle School, and the Intensive Behavior and Alternative Learning Center (IBALC) while school is in session.  The Counselor also has work space at the vendor’s agency (Kent County Health Department) so that she may still counsel youth during holidays and/or outside of normal school hours.  Please click here to visit the website for this program.

New! Prevention First! Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor - LMB funding from the Governor’s Office for Crime Control & Prevention (GOCCP) supports a separate Adolescent Substance Abuse Counselor who performs many of the same functions as the first.  Funding is provided for one full-time counselor/educator to provide education, support and guidance to teens who have experienced mild to moderate chemical use. The counselor may also work with parents and guardians to learn healthy communication skills and the importance of family rules surrounding chemical use.  The counselor will work primarily in schools while in session, but will have work space at the Kent County Health Department so that they may be able to counsel students outside of normal school hours if necessary.  The counselor will provide drug prevention curriculum to middle school students, based on the Life Skills Training curriculum.  An important piece of the counselor’s responsibilities will be to provide coordination and mobility of the Maryland Student Assistance Program. These services are provided by the Kent County Health Department.

Home Visiting/Healthy Families, Part I - The In-Home Intervention Program is a safety net to stabilize families who are in trouble. It is a program that effectively reaches fragile families by providing in-home support to make their homes safer for children, and to strengthen life skills and parenting skills. Qualified in-home visitors reach out to a diverse population who would otherwise not have access to the essential prenatal and child development information available.  The current service capacity is approximately 12 families at any time. The geographical serving area is Kent County and the staffing pattern is between one and three home visits per month. The program utilizes the Parents as Teachers (PAT) curriculum, as well as the Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ’s) for tracking infant and toddler developmental milestones.  Spanish speaking staff are available to recruit and visit local Hispanic families.  Shared Opportunity Service, Inc. is the vendor for this part of the program. These services are provided by Shared Opportunity Service, Inc.

Home Visting/Healthy Families, Part II - Expectant and teen parents are at high risk of dropping out of school, and of poverty/instability in the home.  As a complement to Part I, Part II of this program strives to make contact with expectant teen mothers.  A case worker (CHN) from the Kent County Health Department will provide outreach services to expectant or actual student parents at Kent County High School, as well as to school-age expectant and parenting girls who are not in school.  The CHN will seek to engage these girls in face-to-face conversations in order to provide them with information to ensure a healthy pregnancy, a safe delivery, and a nurturing and safe home environment.  If the girls are willing, the vendor is encouraged to create a support group to share this information with greater efficiency and to establish a peer support network for the girls.  The CHN will also educate these girls about support services available to them.  When expectant student mothers deliver their babies, the CHN will attempt to make at least one visit to her after delivery to determine if the new mother is receiving all services to which she and the baby are entitled and/or need.   

NEW! Early Morning Drop-Off - Kent County Public Schools will operate an Early Morning Drop-Off program for the 2010-2011 school year at the following schools: Rock Hall Elementary, Galena Elementary, H.H. Garnett Elementary, and Kent County Middle School.  This program allows for students at these schools to be dropped off and supervised at school from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. prior to the start of the school day.  A staff member or teacher will provide supervision and tutor students upon request.  The purpose of the program is to reduce truancy, reduce the amount of time youth may be spent unsupervised (and therefore engaged in potentially risky behaviors) early in the day, and to increase parent and youth attachment to school.