Try this: Think of a major problem in your life. Now, imagine that tonight, while you are sleeping, a miracle happens and your problem disappears. How would your life be different when you awaken? Be specific: what changes would you experience?
Reading that scenario, maybe you felt your sense of personal motivation triggered: you found your “why”. For many, it works almost immediately, illuminating reasons that keep them focused through the demanding work of overcoming challenges and achieving goals.
As part of SAFE’s WhyTry program, this question is a building block in a curriculum helping local teens find their “why” and move through and beyond their own hurdles.
SAFE CEO and co-founder Jen Levine first encountered the WhyTry curriculum in her work serving teens in San Diego, young people surviving everything from gangs to human trafficking, substance use, the foster system and more. "I witnessed the program's ability to inspire unbelievable growth in emotional regulation," says Levine.
Launching this fall, SAFE WhyTry teaches strategies for building decision-making skills, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and a sense of responsibility as a path to overcoming challenges and developing resilience. Ultimately, the goal of SAFE WhyTry is to prevent vulnerabilities that lead to substance use and other harmful behaviors.
Building on the nationally recognized WhyTry curriculum in use for 20 years in thousands of educational settings, SAFE WhyTry uses straightforward object lessons, games, group discussions and activities to help students build their emotional intelligence and add to their emotional toolkit.
SAFE WhyTry program director Oomiya Kawas says the benefit of WhyTry is its researched-backed, straightforward approach. “Science and research tell us that our prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that governs emotions and impulse control, isn't finished developing until around 25 years old,” says Kawas. "Knowing that, we see the importance of teaching young people about emotional regulation through curriculum that has a low barrier to entry including play, familiar graphics, and metaphors.”
It has been long proven that emotional regulation plays a significant role in adolescent wellbeing, and when it's lacking, it can contribute to wellness factors like low self-esteem, isolation, aggression, and impulse control. SAFE WhyTry teaches tools for intervening in the negative defense mechanisms that inhibit emotional regulation.
Emma Kelley, Director of Adolescent Wellness, sees students’ perspectives and sense of hope thrive once they realize the power good choices plays in being able to navigate complicated emotional circumstances. “You actually get to make a choice in every situation,” says Kelley. “You can choose to do something different. You can choose to do something positive.” The course emphasizes ways to replace negative behaviors with positive ones to reset harmful behavior patterns, overcome obstacles, and achieve goals.
Kawas is hopeful that the course will also provide downstream benefits to the entire community. “Offering a program like this creates invaluable protective factors in our community,” says Kawas. “When one student attends the program...they will share some of their experience, and that will impact their friend group which will impact their friends’ friend groups and so on.” The cumulative outcome is a more protective and proactive community for every teen.
SAFE WhyTry is free to attend and now open for enrollment. For more information, contact info@safecoalition.org