The RISING UP: Coaching Program has been designed to teach teens how to develop valuable life skills that will enhance their self-development.  Focused on inspiring students to build resiliency and find growth in adversity, this SEL curriculum helps schools extend their guidance efforts on campus.  The simple truth is that in many states, the student to counselor ratio is 600 to 1. In some states that ratio is over 1,000 to 1! With student performance, mental health, and relational issues at the forefront of every student, parent, and educator’s mind, it has become necessary for schools to extend their counseling programs beyond the one on one counseling services that they have traditionally been expected to provide.

Working with a select group of “peer coaches” this program is poised to strengthen students at both younger and older grade levels. Utilized successfully with high school and middle school aged audiences, our mental health curriculum has reached thousands of students across the country and is used by school counselors, after-school professionals, and campus administrators, as well as Communities in Schools, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and 21st Century After-School Centers. It is regarded as one of the best peer-to-peer SEL curriculum solutions available to schools.

When working in this program, older students (coaches) will be trained during an interactive workshop with a RISING UP trainer.  This session will teach students the importance of “coaching” younger students to a better understanding of themselves and the world around them. Coaches will then go into classrooms and teach specific curriculum modules to the younger students. Easily modified or expanded, the curriculum is ideal for 8th graders to work with 6th graders, or for juniors to work with freshman and can be customized to meet any of your SEL programming needs.

All coaching sessions can be completed during in-class guidance sessions, advisory periods, special meetings, workshops, or through after-school/lunch time activities. Ideal student coaches can be traditional leadership students, but we find the best coaches are your B+ or C- students who have leadership potential, but have not yet found their voice on campus. Aligned with the ASCA School Counseling Model this SEL curriculum has been used in anti-bully efforts and is heralded as a suicide prevention program that changes lives and strengthens school culture from the inside out.