Reflecting on the past 20 years of working with troubled youth we have come to this conclusion, ARISE has cracked the code to educating at-risk youth from teens to toddlers in settings as varied as residential juvenile prisons, Head Start classes, after school programs, Boys and Girls Clubs, and court ordered probation activities, etc.

We have found that vital skills for life must be delivered with passion and understanding. Two decades of hands on experience proves those trained as ARISE Certified Life Skills Instructors have the right attitude and tools to effectively teach skills for life to adolescents and younger children struggling to find dignity (even though they may not know the meaning of the word) in an unfriendly world. Hot heads ready to blow their tops and those prone to uncontrollable anger often make up the majority of youth in an ARISE group. Almost without fail they all respond to warm-hearted acts of kindness, respect, and instructors that listen attentively. Remember these teens/children have had problems with their parents, siblings, neighbors, friends, and extended family members. Acts of kindness rather than use of force have been much more effective.

The 260 ARISE skills for life lessons were specifically created by ARISE for troubled youth of all ages, written to be easily understood by those reading far below average. We at ARISE recognized early on that most of the population we work with are on their own emotionally. This material provides interactive activities that demonstrate the benefits of teens/children taking personal responsibility for their actions no matter how abusive, dysfunctional, and disastrous their lives are.

What we the founders of ARISE have also learned in the past 20 years is that ARISE works! Over 5,000 Certified ARISE Life Skills Instructors who have taught in excess of four million documented hours of ARISE curricula and close to two million at-risk youth across the USA, Canada, and Bermuda, empowered adolescents and children with necessary skills to function productively in today’s society. And that is something of which we are extremely proud.

The following are some of the topics ARISE provides in its skills for life program from teens to tots: anger and conflict management, independent-living skills, employability skills, social skills, personal safety, consumerism skills, parenting skills and more. Anyone can suffer…it’s what humans do best. The hardest, most inspiring thing in life is to assist others to become happy functioning individuals.