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community THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE Feb. 20 - March 5, 2013 Page B-2

for some can be found bylearning techniques tocontrol or manage theiranger. Anger managementteaches that while youcannot avoid stressful lifeevents, you can learn howto feel about them andwhat to do about them.

Research suggests thatmanaging anger not only

benefits the participant,but the entire family and ultimately communi-ties. But part of the chal-lenge is recognizing whenhelp is needed. Accordingto experts at Mayo Clinic,in Rochester, Minn., in anarticle on their website,you should consider seek-ing help for anger issues:

If you or a loved onesanger seems out of con-trol

If it causes you to dothings you regret

If it hurts those aroundyou

If it is taking a toll on

your personal relation-ships.

Eighteen-year-old Em-manuel attends schooland works with otheryoung people in his com-munity, but that was notalways so. After actingout as a young teen, hewas remanded to the ju-venile justice system andreceived residential treat-ment at Starr Common-wealths Albion campus.

Emmanuel was angryabout a lot of things,said his mother, Gwen.She cited the death of hisfather when he was a baby.He was forced to compete

for Gwens attention be-cause of her at- home day-care business.

He deeply resentedthe daycare because I had15 to 30 kids that I tookcare of every day so hedidnt always get all thetime and attention thathe wanted, said Gwen.I had to explain that thiswas something that I hadto do to provide for us.

[My son] was angryabout a lot of thing, buthe never really could talkabout what was botheringhim.

Emmanuel turned hisanger around with thehelp of the anger man-agement program thatwas part of his treatmentat Starr Commonwealth.In the program, healthybehavior is modeled by

adults who can supportthe young adult by, amongother things, encouragingand reinforcing appropri-ate behaviors.

Founded in Albion in1913 and a national modelfor trauma response, StarrCommonwealth workstoward creating a brighterfuture for Detroits youngpeople and their familiesthrough early interventionprograms and residentialand private treatment pro-grams. In 2012 it servedover 600 young peoplein its anger managementworkshops.

Gwen saw firsthand the

results for Emmanuel. Helearned healthy ways tomanage anger, triggersand decision making, andis moving forward with hislife in positive, healthyways.

The counselor wouldkeep me informed on howhe was progressing, saysGwen. He did well inschool, he was a leader.He started doing well atall the things that I sawin him and knew that hecould do.

When he returned[from the program], wecould talk about a lot of

the things that were both-ering him. Going throughthe program closed a gapfor us and helped us es-tablish a real line of com-munications.

Taking action to learnhow to control anger canhave major impacts onindividuals, their familiesand the entire communi-ty. Below is a list of agen-cies and resources thatmay be helpful:

Health Services resource list from

University of Michigan - Dearborn Website:

http://www.saveourchildrencoalition.org/wayne-county/health-mental-health/

Wayne County Department ofCommunity Mental Health:

http://www.waynecounty.com/hhs_mh.htm

Oakland County Department of Community

Mental Health:

www.occmha.org

Washtenaw County Department of Community

Mental Health:

http://www.ewashtenaw.org/government/departments/community_mental_health/mh_csts_wcho.html

John Dingel VA Medical Center, Detroit:

http://www.detroit.va.gov/services/mentalhealth.asp

Starr Commonwealth:

www.starr.org

Starr Vista:

www.starvista.org

Anger ManagementFrom page B-1

are being fully implement-ed to help students andteachers get along, setboundaries and find sup-port.

According to the cen-ters interim superinten-dent, Dr. ChristopherPlum, opening circles

start the morning. Thesecircles give studentsa platform to check inwith their classmatesand teachers, talk aboutwhats on their minds,and share how they arefeeling. The small amountof time spent on creatingtighter relationships hasbenefits; students notonly celebrate personalachievements with theirpeers, but also talk openlyabout struggles at homeor elsewhere with supportfrom their classmates andteacher.

The idea is this: withdistractions aired and out

of the way, students canbetter focus on learning.Teachers know whatsgoing on with their stu-dents, and that alone canlead to a different outcomefor troubled students.

When conflicts doarise, they are treated ina restorative way so theybecome teachable mo-ments that improve theculture of the classroomand the school, ratherthan diminishing it.

Since implementingthe system three yearsago, students at Plymouthhave become more proac-tive, rather than reactive,

with problems that arise.Before, notes Plum, The

dean of students wouldntknow there was a problemuntil somebodys nosegot broken. This way, stu-dents are empowered tostay ahead of that stuff.

McClendon shares the

story of a Highland Parkteacher who was trainedin restorative practices.She had a class that wasquickly spiraling out ofcontrol, so she createda circle and shared howthe students behaviormade her feel. She askedthe students to answer aseries of restorative ques-tions, the last being whatneeded to happen to makethings better.

The students came upwith their own classroomguidelines. By using a fairprocess and engaging stu-dents in the decisions,discipline issues dimin-ished.

At Detroits Osborn

been mutually reciprocal.I dont know of anyoneat AT&T who has walkedaway from this initiativeunchanged.

While AT&T has con-

tributed more than $100million in the four yearssince the program waslaunched in 2008 andpledged an additional$250 million in an an-nouncement in early 2012,its the firsthand supportof AT&T employees andsocial engagement modelsthat really seem to impactthe students most.

CHANGE AHEAD

The work climate ischanging in this globaleconomy and preparingour students today for to-morrows success by edu-cating them is one of the

greatest responsibilitieswe have, saysState Representa-tive Rudy Hobbs(D-Southfield).However, beforewe can focus onadvanced skillsthat come witheducation beyondhigh school, wefirst must helpstudents success-fully graduatefrom high school.Programs like AT&TsASPIRE utilize technol-ogy to mentor high schoolstudents and teach themhow to build strong per-sonal relationships which

are essential to their suc-cess, improving their livesand improving Michiganscompetitiveness.

A FOCUS ON THEFUTURE

The proof is in thenumbers according toKaren Kosniewski, thepresident and CEO ofJunior Achievement (JA).Locally, more than 1,800students and 700 AT&T

employee volunteers havecontributed 5,500 hoursto ASPIRE creating out-standing outcomes, shesays.

AT&T supported inter-

active learning models,like Quicken Loans JA Fi-nance Park, have helped8,000 middle and highschool students yearlylearn about personal fi-nancial responsibilitythrough computer basedbudgeting simulationsthat help students under-stand why mom and dadspocketbook is not open24/7.

A GAME -CHANGINGAPPROACH

What happens whenyou gather a roomful ofteachers, students andsoftware developers andgive them 24 hours to

build a mobileapp that will helpimprove highschool success?

They comeup with fresh,m a r k e t - r e a d ytools that may bethe next game-changer in educa-tion, according toAT&Ts Clark.

Thats whynext generation

ASPIRE programs in-clude opportunities forstudents to get in on thedevelopment of interac-tive electronic games thatfoster learning, hands-on educational programsthat enable students to dothings like clean up simu-lated oil spills or extractDNA from bananas, andsponsorship of hack-athons designed to de-velop new tools to helpsupport education initia-tives.

MAKING A PLAY

With gaming now a topnational pastime, it only

Relationships

Academy, ateacher trained in restor-ative practices used themethodology to fosterhigher expectations.When grades came out,

she called a circle andasked students what hap-pened, how they felt abouttheir grades, who was im-pacted by the grades, andhow and what needed tobe done to improve theirgrades by the end of thenext semester.

The students an-swered the questionsand then created theirown individual plans forimprovement. She wentfrom chasing kids downto complete their workto students chasing herdown for extra work.

Keeping kids in school

At the simplest level,restorative practices helpmore kids stay in school,keeping them off thestreet and out of the ju-venile justice system andincreasing the likelihoodof graduating on time.

Research shows that ifa child misses five to ninedays of school, his or herchance of graduating ontrack drops to 63 percent;and that drops down to41 percent at the 10-daymark. Since the purposeof school is to gradu-ate kids on track and ontime, suspension serious-ly blocks a childs chancefor academic success.

If youre kicking kidsout, you are not help-ing them to graduate ontime, says McClendon.Youre actually workingagainst the very thing thatyou say youre there todo.

Monica Evans, a police

officer withthe Detroit

Police Depart-ment, works to preventyouth violence and is astrong believer in restor-ative practices. She works

with the hard-knocks stu-dents: gang members andstudents with destructivebehaviors who have beenidentified as most likelyto be expelled.

She says that becauseof zero tolerance policies,its been difficult gettingadministrators to buy intorestorative practices. Yet,when they do, the resultsare astounding.

Evans worked withOsborn Schools and sawits suspensions drop from340 to 14 in one schoolyear using restorativepractices. The schoolscrime stats also decreased

during the same period.Keeping kids in school

is a significant reason touse restorative practices.With no place to go, out-of-school youth may commitcrimes or become victimsof crime. Police officershands are somewhat tiedas there is no truancy of-fense when youth are le-gally out of school.

That spells nothing buttrouble.

Alice Thompson, CEOof Black Family Develop-ment, Inc. in Detroit, an-other proponent of restor-ative practices, says that

zero tolerance has beenabused, being applied tokids for minor offenses.

You could have flippedoff the principal, and sothe response has beenthe kid is expelled fromschool, and when youreexpelled from school itmeans you may not attend

another Michigan-fundedschool for another 180days.

She says zero toler-ance has, inadvertently,beefed up the juvenile jus-tice population in Michi-gan and Detroit: Its notby intention, but if a kid is

15 and out of school, whatis he going to do?

Alternatively, changescan be dramatic whenrestorative practices areused. Evans tells thestory of an elderly sub-stitute teacher being sub-jected to harsh and dis-respectful behavior. Thestudents who had beendoing restorative practic-es stopped the tyranny inthe classroom and askedthe other students to con-sider if the sub was hurt-ing them. The rudenessstopped and the studentscompleted their poetry as-signment and enjoyed

it.These same kids

that stopped the harass-ment would have beenthe instigators, saysEvans. Now, they weresaying to their peers thatthe teacher was beingpositive, and they neededto listen.

Evans calls her restor-ative practices circlesthe Invested Youth Soci-ety of Dividends becauseshe doesnt like negativeterms like at-risk. Also,a lot of our most risky in-vestments give us the bestreturns, says Evans.

Restorative practices isa way to encourage thosehealthy returns whileslowing the dropout-to-prison pipeline.

As progress, Thomp-son points to the Michi-gan Board of Educationsresolution last summerasking schools to reviewtheir zero tolerance poli-cies and to consider re-storative practices, posi-tive behavior support, andpeer mediation as alterna-tives to suspension andexpulsion.

And so were makingsome very, very smallgains, says Thompson.

But it always takes timeto be able to change asystem of behavior, likezero tolerance.

Reaching the entire

community

McClendon and Thomp-son are working withothers to influence larger

systems schools, thepolice department, thejuvenile justice system to adopt the restorativepractices culture, takinga robust approach withthe idea of turning Detroitinto a restorative practicecommunity.

Were doing someheavy lifting, trying tobring restorative prac-tices to scale as a way tocommunicate, to prob-lem solve, to go throughthe process of correctingharm, or acknowledgingharm and restoring that,says Thompson, who has70 staff members trainedin restorative practices.

She also employs a re-storative practices man-ager to provide inexpen-sive training to schoolsand community groups.She wants to see restor-ative practices training beaccessible to any group

thats interested.

A local restorativepractices steering com-mittee of executives fromBlack Family Develop-ment, The Skillman Foun-dation, YouthVille Detroit,Detroit Parent Network,Cody Rouge CommunityAlliance, Wayne CountySheriffs Department, De-troit Police Department,the YMCA, and many moreare working toward somelofty goals.

The committee wantsto guide the implemen-tation of a restorativepractices city, develop a

strategic plan to infuserestorative practices intothe six Skillman Founda-tion Good Neighborhoods,and review ongoing dataon high crime and con-flict areas to put strategyto the geographic areasmost in need.

As more leaders es-pouse the benefits ofrestorative practices tocreate a more cohesiveculture, help rebuild andrepair Detroit, and putthe city on a path towarda more peaceful future,it makes sense for theprocess to start with ourkids.

Editors Note: If youare interested in learn-ing more about Restor-ative Practices, contactmboyce@blackfamilyde-velopment.org. This storywas originally publishedin the February 2013issue of Michigan NightLight.

From page B-1

Detroit doesnthave a crimeproblem; we havea relationshipproblem.

Henry McClendon,program officer at The

Skillman

Foundation

AT&T has announced investments of more than $350million to ASPIRE, an initiative aimed at helping studentsgraduate from high school ready for careers and college.The campaign, which has impacted more than one mil-lion U.S. high school students nationwide, utilizes an in-novative approach which:

Uses technology to connect with students in new andmore effective ways, including interactive gamificationand Web-based content and social media

Takes a socially innovative approach to tackle highschool success and college/career readiness for stu-dents at-risk of dropping out of high school

Taps into the innovation engine of its AT&T Foundryto look for fresh or atypical approaches to educationalobstacles. The Foundry brings together participantsin an open, fast-paced, collaborative environment thatinspires innovation. Sessions focus on bringing ideasfrom concept to commercialization

Capitalizes on the power of personal connections inthe form of mentoring, internships and other volun-tary efforts that involve many of AT&Ts approximately260,000 employees and by engaging our customersin the issue.

Rudy Hobbs

Aim High From page B-1

makes sense to integrateit into learning models.

And thats exactlythe aim of partners Ga-meDesk and AT&T, whohope to provide freeonline access to create an

innovative living labora-tory designed to promoteinteractive learning.

This game-changingapproach to teaching kids

critical skills and con-cepts through high qualitygaming and digital simula-tions is truly driving inno-vation in education, Clarksays. We need unique ap-proaches to teaching and

learning in order to bringabout change in U.S. andMichigan graduation ratesand make sure studentsgraduate ready to hit theground running.

I dont know of anyone at AT&T who has walked awayfrom this initiative unchanged.

Greg Clark, AT&T Regional Vice President