Strategy: Classroom instruction, group debate, peer and self evaluation

Activity Description: 8 weekly classroom sessions lasting 2 hours each from 3:30 to 5:30pm for 20 Adolescents ages 12 to 14.  Tom Palermo, a certified facilitator of MRT, (Moral Reconation Therapy), will guide the students along a curriculum designed to foster higher social reasoning, increase self-esteem, relationship development/repair and responsible decision making.  The following social issues will be targeted: substance abuse prevention, alternatives to violence, responding to or ending bullying behaviors.  See below for the conceptual area covered in each of the eight classes. 

Participants in Character Exploration (CE) are given a workbook and all necessary exercises/materials used in the class.  Students are given a full understanding of the objective requirements of each step. 

• The essence of Step 1 is Honesty. This step requires an honest self assessment from the client and focuses on denial and honesty. Step 1 in CE begins the process of directly confronting participants' negative attitudes, beliefs, decision making processes, and behaviors. In Step 1 participants essentially perform a personality, attitude, and values inventory. Based upon objective criteria set out in the CE workbook, other participants and the facilitator decide on the passage of clients' exercises and steps. 

• The essence of Step 2 is Trust. This step requires successful completion of group exercises and requires practicing the development of trust, essential to beginning the process of values, clarification, and changing antisocial thinking and behavior. 

• The essence of Step 3 is Acceptance. This step requires that students demonstrate conformity to the rules, regulations, and requirements imposed upon them,  including the rules of the school,  and the laws of society. This affords participants the opportunity to learn and practice pro-social behaviors. 

• The essence of Step 4 is Awareness. This step requires an extensive inventory of the specific elements that make up a student's life and raises awareness of self including one's interpersonal relationships. The written assessments generated in this step are discussed at length with the facilitator as well as discussed in class. The students' cognitive patterns are addressed in the initial four steps. 

• The essence of Step 5 is Relationships. Students focus upon the damage that their behavior has caused in their relationships with others. Family dynamics, fostering positive relationships, eliminating antisocial relationships, and corrective planning are all included in this step. 

• The essence of Step 6 is Moving Outside of Self. This step requires participants to help other students in the program, as well as have discussions with each fellow student in the class.  Appropriate leisure activities, interpersonal skills, and development of pro social attitudes and behavior are addressed in this step. Students are required to carry out 10 hours of unpaid public service, and an important application of this step is providing assistance to students, who have entered the class after the beginning of the semester, to help them master CE concepts and exercises. 

• The essence of Step 7 is Establishing Goals. This step requires students to form both long-term (5 and 10  years) and short-term (one year) goals. This helps foster delay of gratification expectations, as well as helping students feel more in charge of their lives. Changing a negative identity is a major focus of this step. 

• The essence of Step 8 is Follow-Through. This step requires that participants meet the deadlines of their goals which were earlier established in the program. Students make plans to appropriately complete personal goals and develop self-reliance while making more appropriate commitments.