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Tia Burroughs Clayton, MSS
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

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Alyson Ferguson, MPH
Chief Operating Officer

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Vivian Figueredo, MPA
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

Derrick M. Gordon, PhD
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

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Georgia Kioukis, PhD
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

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Samantha Matlin, PhD
Senior Learning & Community Impact Consultant

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Director of Learning & Community Impact

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President

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Nadia Ward, MEd, PhD
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

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Bridget Talone, MFA
Grants Manager for Learning and Community Impact

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Hitomi Yoshida, MSEd
Graduate Fellow

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Ashley Feuer-Edwards, MPA
Learning and Community Impact Consultant

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The LANGUAGE OF POWER©

Community Commitment, Inc.

The LANGUAGE OF POWER© Logo

Program Website
Year:
2018
State:
Pennsylvania
Winner Status:
Applicant
Program Type:
Training and Skill Building
Target Population:
Providers and Caregivers
Setting:
Community

Program Description

The fact that teenagers often struggle and become disruptive is nothing new. Many if not most teens do not respond effectively to individualized office type therapy or counseling, which at best have inconsistent results. Until now therapy or counseling has been virtually the only option for concerned parents other than our organized systems of public education, child welfare and juvenile justice. The LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program is something completely new. It teaches parents and educators how to take their power back from a difficult or alienated teenager simply by how they communicate. It teaches us to communicate with teens based on how they think by reassuring them that we as the adults have the ability to understand them. It is based on the science that tells us that teenagers do not yet have an adult brain and so they cannot possibly think like adults. We also understand that they are struggling to get a handle on their intensely social world where image is king. And so the LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program is both a transformative and a disruptive technology. The Program creates an environment where teens see adults as actually understanding them.

Creativity

The beauty of the LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program is that it speaks to teens based on how they think. It is scripted communication–a specific language based on learning to follow eleven Principles through practice and repetition with all questions answered through every step of the training process. Teens respond almost instantly to adults who have mastered this process. We have learned that teenagers engage positively when the “me versus them” thinking is replaced by the “I get where you’re coming from.”

Leadership

In the LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program, eleven core Principles of adult training are clearly delineated and the ensuing model provides a clear path where teachers/educators will emerge as facilitators for others to follow. Actual case studies are provided to serve as examples of where these exciting new pathways can lead. The potential of the Program is great. Once individual models result in success, schools and families will universally look to the Program as a realistic alternative to common strategies in place that simply do not provide satisfactory results.

Sustainability

Our approach was developed from thirteen years of operating a school for disruptive teenagers. There was no bullying, violence or a need for law enforcement assistance. From this we have developed the LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program, a scripted communicational system based on how teenagers think. When applied to delinquents, we call it Peer Integration Therapy©. With school students, it is Positive Peer Integration©. We seek nothing less than to transform the existing culture of the local school district and in so doing create a national model for public schools nationwide. The LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program gets us there. Brand new. Absolutely original. Not practiced anywhere. Its potential is remarkable. And because this is a group sociological approach, the impact on the school environment will be immediate and sustained.

Replicability

Where there are teenagers, there are no doubt examples of disruptive behavior, turmoil and struggle within families, schools and other socially active environments. Whether it be through individual or group leaders, replicating the program principles are simple. No special materials or resources are required, just the LANGUAGE OF POWER© Program, motivated parents and educators, and online training.

Results/Outcomes

We have already implemented this approach with juvenile delinquents since 2012 through our non-profit (CCI) and continue to do so. We will offer 10 hours of corrective action classes (actually applied sociology) to groups of 10-15 teens as part of a school’s disciplinary process and will closely track the impact both on the individual student and his/her peer group. We offer specific online training to both parents of struggling teens and public school educators (gotteenagers.com). We have offered our complete plan to a local school district experiencing difficult-to-control teenage behavior. And finally we have circulated our document (When a School District Is Being Traumatized By Out of Control Teenage Behavior.) to the community power structure (US Senator, State Senator, Superintendent of Schools, 21 Chamber of Commerce sponsors, etc.).