Wednesday, 6 August 2014

The Benefits Of Using Positive Peer Culture

By Saleem Rana


Barry Belvins spoke to Lon Woodbury and Elizabeth McGhee about the many benefits of using positive peer culture on a weekly radio show hosted on L.A. Talk Radio. Barry explained how other teens are considered to be a part of the community and help their fellow teens overcome behavioral problems. He believed that forming a community was essential to the entire healing process. In fact, PPC was more effective than rule-based residential programs.

The host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens, Lon Woodbury, is an Independent Educational Consultant and publishes the highly informative Woodbury Reports. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984. Co-Host Elizabeth McGhee, the Director of Admissions for Sandhill Child Development Center, New Mexico, has more than 19 years of clinical, consulting and referral relations experience with adolescents.

Guest Biography

Barry Blevins is the Executive Director at High Frontier, located in West Texas. He has been with the private, co-ed residential treatment center for 27 years. Barry graduated from Sul Ross State University with a Masters of Public Administration and is a licensed child care administrator in the State of Texas.

Why Using PPC is the Way to Go

Barry Blevins talked about using Positive Peer Culture. He said it worked better than the familiar peer pressure method. He contended that behavioral rules were counterproductive. They took away the focus from the emotional healing process. These rules could easily mask erratic behavior patterns. By not hiding behind such a formal authoritarian structure, it was so much easier for everyone to begin addressing the real problems.

PPC was all about students reminding each other to stick to their agreements, and this approach took the burden off the staff, who were now no longer involved in a power struggle. This entire process made each students feel empowered, feeling as if they had control and could make sound choices, which was a huge relief from feeling imposed upon by an outside authority. Students not only understood their own acting-out behavior much better when their fellow students intervened, but, in this therapeutic models, staff only played a peripheral role, and they could facilitate discussion s rather play the role of authoritarian who were there to coerce, warn, and punish.

Since co-host Liz McGhee had actually worked for Barry for a number of years, she joined in the discussion on using positive peer culture by talking about students had to realize that they were there to share their concern for their peers rather than to try to control them.




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