Credit Recovery
Number 34 recognizes that at-risk youth often struggle with the ever increasing academic demands of secondary education. It is the belief of Number 34 that every youth will benefit greatly by completing high school and earning a high school diploma. Number 34 offers the struggling high school student the opportunity to recover credits needed to complete high school graduation requirements by enrolling them in the APEX Learning on-line school. The APEX Learning courses include features such as audio assistance in direct instruction to support students reading below grade level or for whom English is a second language, guided instruction and annotated reading to improve reading comprehension, graphic organizers to aid students in accomplishing tasks, and study sheets to assist students who have not developed successful study habits. The digital curriculum addresses different learning styles and provides multiple instructional representations that incorporate audio, video, graphics, images, and animations.

Because students come to high school at varying levels of readiness, APEX Learning has designed its digital curriculum with multiple pathways. Foundations Courses provide a bridge to high school level coursework and feature structured remediation for students not working at grade level. Core Courses focus on building essential skills and content knowledge to support success for both struggling and mainstream students. Comprehensive Courses offer a college preparation path designed for motivated students seeking to build skills and content knowledge in preparation for undergraduate study. Additionally, APEX Learning Advanced Placement (AP) Courses are designed to meet higher education expectations of a college level course and prepare students to demonstrate achievement through success on the AP exams. All AP courses are authorized by the College Board AP Course Audit.

Every APEX Learning course provides a complete scope and sequence aligned to State of Wyoming graduation standards, with comprehensive instructional content and formative and summative assessments integrated throughout. The course catalog includes the range of courses necessary to meet high school graduation requirements in math, science, English, social studies, and world languages.

Certified Tutoring
A tutor teaches a particular subject or usually provides specific help to an individual student. Usually, such teaching is done on a one-on-one basis, or a small group setting. Therefore, it allows the youth to learn eagerly and effectively by giving the youth the full attention they need to master the concepts they are struggling with. Also, by asking youth questions, a tutor can promote the learning of problem-solving skills and the retention of the material, because tutoring is about learning, not about giving answers. The benefits of tutoring stay with the youth long after they've passed the class. The specialized attention and the teaching methods the youth will encounter with Number 34 will make the youth more prepared for the completion of high school and give the youth the ability to become successful in whatever field the youth chooses. In general tutoring:

• Increases mastery of academic skills
• Improves self-esteem and confidence
• Improves students attitudes toward school
• Decreases drop-out rates, truancies, and tardies
• Breaks down social barriers and creates new friendships
• Promotes emotional support and positive role models

Benefits for the students:

• Fully certified educator providing direct tutoring
• Tutoring tailored to specific learning styles and needs
• Tutoring free of competition - students can progress at their own pace
• Increased praise, feedback, and encouragement
• Companionship with a positive adult role model
• Improved social skills

Family Night
Social service leaders and even politicians around the world have preached that the family unit is breaking apart and needs to be strengthened. Holding a weekly family night is one way to prioritize what is of value in the family's life and at the same time teach children a wide variety of lessons and skills that can strengthen the family. Weekly family activity nights can strengthen communications skills and increase moral and cultural beliefs. Positive values can be taught with games, activities, or family outings. Unfortunately, many of the youth on Supervised Probation have very little experience with positive family activities. This could be because of a lack of financial resources, lack of parental motivation, or a lack of interest by the youth.

Number 34 believes that all youth can be successful with a strong family support system. The first step in achieving that support system is finding activities that allow the family to enjoy time together. The Number 34 Family Night is designed to do just that. Number 34 staff will sponsor Family Night activities and assist the family in identifying activities that can be engaged in outside the Number 34 facility. Number 34 recognizes the current financial strain that many families are feeling. As financial strings are tightened within the family unit, family activities are, many times, the first to be sacrificed. Number 34 will be able to provide reasonable financial assistance to the family for the activity of their choice.

Mentoring
Mentoring is a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support, and encouragement aimed at developing the competence and character of the mentee. A mentor is an adult who, along with parents, provides a young person with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement, and constructive example. Mentors are good listeners, people who care, people who want to help young people and bring out strengths that are already there. A mentor is not a foster parent, therapist, parole officer, or cool peer. All young people have the potential to succeed in life and contribute to society, however, not all youth get the support they need to thrive. Without immediate intervention by caring adults, they could make choices that not only undermine their futures, but ultimately the economic and social well-being of our nation. Mentoring - the presence of caring adults offering support, advice, friendship, reinforcement and constructive examples - has proved to be a powerful tool for helping young people fulfill their potential. Mentoring can help by:

• Improving young people's attitudes towards their parents, peers, and teachers
• Encouraging students to stay motivated and focused on their education
• Providing a positive way for young people to spend free time
• Helping young people face daily challenges
• Offering young people opportunities to consider new career paths and get much-needed economic skills and knowledge

Children grow in self-confidence, responsibility, and academic performance while they have a mentor. Mentored students are:

1. 46% Less likely to begin using illegal drugs
2. 27% Less likely to begin using alcohol
3. 52% Less likely to skip school
4. 33% Less likely to hit someone
5. 37% Less likely to skip a class
6. 40% More likely to finish high school
7. 64% Developed higher levels of confidence
8. 62% More likely to trust their teachers
9. 60% Improved relationships with adults
10. 56% improved relationships with peers

Parent Mentoring
Anxiety. Guilt. Fear. Shame. Isolation. These are constant companions for parents of at-risk teens. In contrast to parents of other children with special needs, they find little, if any, compassion and understanding. Rather, they are faced with overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, discouragement, failure, fingers of blame pointed at them, harsh judgment and criticism. Support withdraws; people turn away and walk a wide circle around them, as though their pain might be contagious. These are often the feelings of parents of juvenile delinquent children and children in need of supervision. A parent mentor can assist with sorting through those feelings without the need for therapeutic intervention. Often times parents of at-risk youth simply need support and guidance, to be listened to and heard; they need a mentor, a friend. Being mentored is meeting one-on-one or in small groups led by an experienced parent offering encouragement, advice, and support. Parent mentoring helps with specific issues such as the challenges of parenting, budgeting, or other concerns.

Number 34 believes that every parent of a youth that is involved in the legal system is unique and has unique concerns and problems. The Number 34 parent Mentoring Program can assist these parents in a one-to-one environment. There is a distinction between parent mentoring and therapeutic interventions. Parent mentoring is designed to be more supportive and less rigorous than therapeutic interventions.

Parent Support Group
Number 34 parent Support Group will be facilitated by Number 34 staff. It is the belief of Number 34 that all parents who have youth on Supervised Probation are entitled to non therapeutic support.  The Parent Support Group is designed to bring together parents who have youth on Supervised Probation.  The Support Group will assist the parents with understanding the legal system, including Court Hearings and the Department of Family Services.  Although there will be a predetermined topic to discuss, parents are encouraged to discuss individual issues and concerns they have.

Characteristics of adult learners:

·          Adults decide what they will do with the material presented by the leader or by other group members.

·          Adults bring ideas, questions and concerns that arise from their own values, cultural traditions, personal experience and knowledge.

·          Adults in a group will be resources for one another.

·          Adults are stimulated by things they can use right away.

·          Adults bring emotional baggage from previous learning situations.

·          Adults have different learning styles – visual, kinetic, auditory.

·          Adults have different comfort levels with written materials.

·          Adults want to evaluate their own learning and the effectiveness of the sessions.

Working with parents is exciting. We can’t control what people learn or what insights they glean but we can encourage people to think for themselves and express their own ideas.  Every parent support group member including the facilitator benefits and learns from hearing stories and ideas from the full range of perspectives represented in any group of parents.

Transitional Services
Number 34 believes both therapeutic and non-therapeutic groups can be beneficial to youth and their families.  Parents of youth that are in placement are often confused about the legal process and what to expect from the day of removal to the day of reunification.  The Transitional Services Group is a support group that brings together parents in a non-therapeutic environment to discuss a wide variety of issues they face daily while their youth is in out of home placement.  In addition to the support group, Transitional Services will include the development of a family transitional plan. 

This support and education group is designed for parents who have had their children removed from their care by the Juvenile Court, and who are anticipating having their children returned to their care within the next year.

Group meetings will focus on various topics, including:

The Legal System – What just happened and what to expect?
Parental Rights – Do I have any?
Child Support – Getting it started now.
Placement Facilities – Getting to know your child’s facility.
Family Transitional Plan - Helps ensure family success upon reunification
Preparing for Reunification – Preparation begins on the day of removal.
Time Management – How to juggle work, other children, Juvenile Court, and the Department of Family Services requirements.
Visitation With Your Child – Assistance with phone, facility and home visits (including transportation).
Rebuilding Relationships – How your youth has changed?
Support Team – Getting yours assembled.
Aftercare/Follow-up – How are things going?

Group members will have the chance to learn and practice skills for dealing with various situations.  Each member will also have the opportunity to discuss issues and concerns that are not on the discussion schedule.  Number 34 staff will facilitate group discussions and supply parents with information.

Positive Peer Group
Peer groups are an important influence throughout one's life, but they are more critical during the developmental years of childhood and adolescence. There is often controversy about the influence of a peer group versus parental influence, particularly during adolescence. Recent studies show that parents continue to have significant influence, even during adolescence, a reassuring finding for many parents. It appears that the power of the peer group becomes more important when the family relationships are not close or supportive. For example, if the parents work extra jobs and are largely unavailable, their children may turn to their peer group for emotional support. This also occurs when the conflict between parents and children during adolescence, or at any time during a child's development, becomes so great that the child feels pushed away and seeks closeness elsewhere. Most children and adolescents in this situation are not discriminating about the kind of group they join. They will often turn to a group simply because that group accepts them, even if the group is involved in illegal or negative activities.  The need for affiliation or closeness is often greater than the need to "do the right thing" for some adolescents who feel isolated and abandoned by members of their own family.