CiViL Groups develops character in at-risk high school students by guiding them to address the issues that motivate their choices. Guided by an adult mentor, students discuss the feelings, beliefs, choices, and behaviors that underlie good or bad character – in their own lives. In CiViL Groups we help at-risk students work through inner issues, so they can approach their relationships and scholastic challenges with hope, confidence, and resiliency. With a combination of mentoring and small group counseling, CiViL Groups attempts to provide a caring context in which students can talk about their problems and consider wise alternatives. As students become less encumbered by their inner-struggles, they are set free to learn the behaviors and choices common to successful people of good character.
CiViL Groups students are also provided with service opportunities. Participation in these projects gives them a broader view of the hardships other people face and how they as individuals can make a difference. They develop a sense of personal power and confidence as they discover that they can change life for someone else. They also come away with a desire to do more.
The Results
At risk students who “make it” can almost always point to a specific person who believed in them, encouraged them, and helped them struggle through the problems of their broken families and broken communities. CiViL Groups provides just such a mentor, and students can talk openly with that mentor in a confidential, small group setting every week. Mentors are trained to ask questions that help students talk through the maze of their own lives – with the result that students solve problems, make wiser choices, and perform better. During the years that CiViL Groups has been working with the students of Stratford High School, the graduation rate has increased by over thirty per cent.
Just as importantly, students who participate in service projects have developed an “appetite” for public service. Their service experiences range from collecting toys for needy children to rebuilding homes that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. In the Spring of 2007 the students of CiViL Groups at Stratford were chosen by Hands On Nashville as the Mary Catherine Strobel Volunteer Group of the Year. One of our students was overheard to say, “I never knew it would feel so good to do the right thing.” CiViL Groups students learn just how good it does feel to do the right thing. They discuss the options. They make the hard decisions. And they reach out to change the lives of others. The result is not just a good feeling. It is good character that makes good students into good people. As one student said, “CiViL Groups changes lives.”