Inside the juvenile manual of the ARISE Life-skills program is the drawing of a single penny, heads up, followed by a quote that inspired the program's name:

"I am not concerned that you have fallen; I am concerned that you arise"-Abraham Lincoln.

During a recent visit to the Jackson Juvenile Offender Correction Center (JJOCC) in Marianna, Fla., ARISE co-founders Edmund and Susan Benson were pleasantly surprised to learn of the impact that quote has had on those participating in the program.

"Would you believe that this kid [at JJOCC] recited the exact quote from inside one of our manuals?" asked Edmund Benson, who was a successful furniture chain owner before retiring and launching the ARISE Foundation in 1986.

The young man told the Bensons, "As long as I keep that quote in mind, as long as I have a penny in my pocket to remind me, I'm going to keep arising."

This declaration was reassuring for the founders of the ARISE Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that trains juvenile justice professionals to teach teenagers the life management skills they need for reentry.

Partially funded by a $500,000-grant from the federal government, the foundation trains the staffs of 43 Floridian juvenile facilities.

For a single fee of about $2,000, ARISE provides a 7-hour intensive training session for first time users of the ARISE Life-skills program. The foundation also supplies program management, certification, statistical analysis of the program and customized books-all of which are written by the Bensons.

A Founder's Arising Story

Though Benson has never been behind bars, he knows what it's like to enter the world unprepared.

At 16, he dropped out of high school to fight in World War II. But four years later, Benson returned to the U.S. and realized that his education level was far behind the norm, making it difficult to find employment. Benson said the only thing that kept him out of trouble was the fact that "drugs had not been invented yet and crime wasn't even an option."

Now, when Benson visits juvenile justice institutions, he tells the teenagers, "Look, I'm a high school drop out. I could have been in your position, but the opportunity just wasn't around."

Instead, Benson tells the teens that he "rose up" and began a "two days a day lifestyle."

"I knew I wasn't as educated as other people out there," he said. "But I also knew that I could work twice as hard as anybody."

Apparently, Benson's strategy worked. By the time he retired in 1982, Benson was the owner of a nation-wide, furniture store chain.

Benson already had a plan to help the "most needy" people in society and was particularly drawn to young people at risk or institutionalized and he used his earlier experiences to develop a program for teens like him.

He spent six months visiting Miami's juvenile justice facilities, interviewing teenagers to find the best way he could keep them out of trouble. Then he and his wife, a school teacher, combined their experiences and created a curriculum that now reaches 5,000 at-risk youths and juveniles per week.

For the first eight years, the ARISE Foundation was a two-person show: Edmund and Susan Benson single-handedly spread their curriculum to a few juvenile institutions in the Miami area, starting with a local elementary school. When demand grew, the foundation hired more than 10 full-time members.

ARISE Trains the Trainers

These 10 ARISE members are responsible for the hands-on staff training, during which participants learn to conduct group discussions using a "positive, nonjudgmental approach" with students. Trainers also review the standard topics that should be included in discussions, such as anger management, conflict resolution and self-esteem.

In addition to training, ARISE provides staff with more than 260 life-skills lessons and 100 books, posters and videos tailored to fit the needs of "underserved youth reading below average, who are accustomed to acting out in the classroom."

The foundation also offers advanced certification for those who use the ARISE Life-skills program for more than one year. Staff members receive a bronze medal after teaching the program for one year, a silver medal after two years and a gold medal after three years.

Research and Institution-Approved

Staff members are not the only ones being recognized. A five-year study by the University of Miami praised the ARISE program for its success rates among various groups of ARISE learners. The study showed "significant improvement" in the knowledge of issues covered by ARISE, especially in the areas of violence reduction, goal setting, anger management, and drugs and alcohol avoidance.

Overall test scores also improved significantly among all ethnic and gender groups.

"This result suggests that the program content is sensitive to and able to reach members of various ethnic backgrounds," the study reported. "Future plans are to present [the program] to Departments of Education and Departments of Juvenile Justice around the country, targeting frustrated, bored youth who would rather be any other place than school."

Institutions in Florida that presently use the ARISE program to prepare their juveniles second the study's findings.

"The program is working out outstandingly so," said JJOCC superintendent Richard Singleton. "We talked to the boys and 98 percent of them think it's worthwhile."

Singleton said the staff has observed positive changes in the juveniles' attitudes and behavior after participating in the program. He first introduced the ARISE program in 1999, when JJOCC was in search of a program involving group discussions for males, ages 13-18.

"Now we have judges and parents knocking our doors down trying to get their children into JJOCC," Singleton said.

The group treatment supervisor at JJOCC, Willie Ross, said the program was "one of the best things that the state of Florida could institute in their facilities."

Ross, who trained for ARISE along with his staff, said he immediately saw the benefits of such group discussions and felt the boys could strongly relate to the materials that ARISE provided.

"We used an ARISE manual early on called, 'Just Rapping,' and just looking at the title of the manual was enough for us to believe that this was going to be something the boys would understand," he said.

According to Ross, the number of violent incidents at JJOCC has dramatically reduced since the program was instituted. In fact, Ross said, fights are no longer the norm, as they previously were. The juveniles are using verbal skills derived from ARISE discussions to talk problems out.

The Okaloosa Youth Academy, in Crestview, Fla., also employs ARISE for life-skills lessons. Program Director Mike Currie said the training has been extremely effective, meeting the needs of a diverse group of the academy's instructors. He also emphasized that the curriculum was developed on a teenage level.

"To be quite honest, it's just not a boring program," Currie said. "It's more interactive than other programs, and it captivates the kids."

Even students are surprised at how a retired couple came up with such "fresh" material. Benson said students are always asking him if he and his wife really wrote the entire curriculum.

"I tell them, 'Yes, we wrote it for you,'" Benson said.

The ARISE Foundation will be expanding to the Washington, D.C. area in the next few months. This implementation will be their first significant reach outside of Florida, but not the last. Benson said he would like to see the program operating in every state before his time is up.

"I'd even like to see the program operating internationally, if I could," said Benson, who is now 74. "But that means I have to hurry."

Resources:

To learn more about the ARISE Life-skills program, visit: www.ariselife-skills.org.