THE BEST WAY TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR GOALS IS TO HELP OTHERS ACCOMPLISH THEIRS
The Community Outreach Specialist (COS) provides intensive intervention/prevention/support/outreach to students identified as "at risk" as determined by the Superintendent's Discipline Council, designated staff at each local school, and referrals from East Central Mental Health and Pike County's Juvenile Court. In addition, the COS provides assessment, identification for services, coordinates with other community services to ensure support for "at risk" students.
Intervention
The purpose of intervention is to REMOVE something that is already in action; to interpose one thing between or among others. Through intervention, the COS provides outreach, support, guidance, and care to improve/better a situation or eliminate a maladaptive situation from penetrating further. It is the COS's goal to provide the very best intervention to each "at risk" student through the tailoring of services needed by the student.
Prevention
Prevention is the process of education, advocacy, and guidance that promotes the well-being of each student within our school system. Through prevention, students are encouraged to make healthy "choices" for themselves. Prevention is a choice to meet the transitions and obstacles of life by creating an environment that enables healthy behaviors that allow our students to be more productive and successful citizens in our society. One of the strategies used by the COS in the areas of Intervention and Prevention is the "Scared Straight Program". The "Scared Straight Program" allows students to visit correctional facilities, so that they see "first hand" the true life experiences of INCARCERATION. The two correctional facilities that the students at the ALC visit are the Julia Tutwiler Women's Prison and the Easterling Correctional Facility. These facilities work in collaboration with the Pike County School System in allowing students to tour the facility, cooperate with inmate presentations and permit students to ask questions.
Support
Support varies from person to person and is designed to help each student to meet his/her individual needs at his/her pace. Support is providing encouragement, attending extra-curricular activities in which the student may be involved, commending and rewarding students on academic achievement and behavior, to provide assurance, and most importantly, to just listen; even to unspoken concerns. Structured support is important because it is designed to be flexible to respond to student's changing needs and it is student centered.
Supportive relationships can build dignity, self-improvement, confidence, and a foundation for self-empowerment. Support transform students who are struggling with specific issues - with family, behavioral problems, school, friends, direction in life - into students who possess integrity, confidence, self-awareness (identifying their own strengths), and determination.
Outreach
Outreach is the act of reaching out to another. Outreach is the first step in relationship-building. The COS provides services to students and their families who might not otherwise have access to specific services. The COS collaborates and utilizes different resources in the community to assist each student and his/her family's specific need(s).
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