Program Overview
Empowerment through Responsible Choices is a ten-lesson curriculum program for teens in Florida, accessible in Manatee, Sarasota, Lee, DeSoto, Hendry and Glades counties. The overall goal is to support teens in building resilience and developing proficiency for leading healthier lives. Through partnerships with community agencies, Centerstone facilitates prevention groups based on comprehensive healthy relationship education curriculums.
These groups aim to provide teens with medically accurate facts. In our open discussions and safe settings, teens engage and build skills through fun activities such as role-plays, team-building games, and critical thinking exercises.
Trained specialists lead weekly groups for students on a variety of topics:
- Safe use of social media and tech
- Consent and responsibility
- Forming and maintaining healthy relationships
- Health education
- Frameworks for assessing and making decisions
- Effective communication skills
- Conflict resolution skills
Get Involved
If you’re interested in joining our program, or if you have further questions, please fill out the form below and one of our team members will get back to you as soon as possible.
I think it’s a very good program; it’s been very good for the teens we have. I feel like it teaches them skills and important information that they wouldn’t normally get in school, or they might get the wrong information inadvertently from other places.
Lesson Topics:
The objective of lesson 1 is to set a welcoming tone and create interest and motivation for relationship education while finding the kind of relationships the participant wants. Learning about oneself is important for participants as a guide for their choices and behavior, and can increase relationship smarts by learning about self and relationships.
The goals of lesson 2 are to understand that healthy relationships begin with an understanding of oneself. To become aware of the positive and negative baggage participants have from the past and how it can affect relationships.
In lesson 3, participants will explore the qualities that are important for them in friends and partners, practice assessing relationships and developing relationship expectations. It also focuses on how healthy relationships develop, understanding the chemistry of the brain, and the risks associated with early stages of relationships due to powerful feelings and emotions.
Lesson 4 is where participants learn how important communication is for healthy relationships. Youth will have the opportunity to examine the patterns of communication in their families and to identify which patterns they want to work on for their lives.
The objectives of lesson 5 include deepening awareness of abusive behaviors and early warning signs with awareness of sexual assault and consent. Participants are encouraged to set boundaries and apply them at the first sign of disrespectful behavior to get help and support.
Lesson 6 includes the goals of facilitating accurate information to dispel common myths about sex, pregnancy, STIs, and HIV. Participants will have an opportunity to analyze STI and HIV facts. Participants will acquire information emphasizing abstinence and begin learning about contraception options.
After completing lesson 7, participants will know the signs and symptoms of STIs while understanding how they transmit and how to prevent them. We increase the knowledge of vulnerability to STIs, confront the stereotypes of when people are infected with STIs, and weaken negative beliefs and attitudes towards STI testing and other safe practices.
Lesson 8 increases participants’ knowledge of birth control methods. Participants will also learn about common misconceptions relating to birth control methods plus review accurate statistics to their usefulness at preventing unwanted pregnancy.
Lesson 9 increases participants’ knowledge of condoms and reduces barriers of use. Participants will learn how to use their communication skills to promote responsible contraceptive use with partners. They will also have the ability to resist situations that are a high risk for HIV/STI infection.
Participants will explore in lesson 10 about the internet, mobile technology, and social media and how it affects communication, relationships, social and emotional development, and mental health.
More Information
Reach out to our program leads by emailing Empowerment@centerstone.org
