Project Destiny

Abstract

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders present significant challenges to educators and community professionals in contemporary practice. At the same time, parents of middle school students experience parenting as a difficult time period that is laden with a variety of feelings. A central strategy for assisting both parents and professionals during this developmental period is to work collaboratively with one another. This sharing of ideas and strategies is helpful in attaining goals for students that are usually not met in the absence of cooperative team work. Furthermore, the recommended direction for service provision for these youth is to work through a coordinated, interagency approach across the community.

This paper presents the first year's methods and initial findings from Project Destiny, a three year study that is attempting to enhance the knowledge and strategies of professionals, parents and community teams for working with middle school students having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD). Initial results from the project's work in three communities suggest that teachers at the middle schools have been interested and able in acquiring new knowledge and skills for working with the youth. These gains were evident in self-evaluations completed by the teachers. Additionally, 60% of parents of youth with EBD were recruited and participate regularly in parent support and advocacy groups. Efforts to integrate the project with local interagency teams have been somewhat less successful due to the current political and economic climate that has eliminated essential resource personnel on local teams. The Project Destiny model has merit for further replication and further analysis of student performance and will be completed in the final year of the project.