Deliver Stay-in-School Education Workshops

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CHOICES Education Group seeks individuals who would like to deliver our CHOICES stay-in-school workshop in their local middle schools. The program takes less than two hours to deliver and less than one day to learn.

Since 1984 more than 6,000,000 students have received the CHOICES message across the U.S. and Canada. We invite you to become part of this international movement to reach the many students who need this vital message.

What is CHOICES? CHOICES is an interactive decision-making workshop that focuses on keeping teens in school, motivating them toward their education and future, and introducing them to practical life skills to help them succeed. In two fast-paced hour-long sessions, business volunteers like you take students through real-world exercises on academic self-discipline, time and money management and goal setting. We were started by a Seattle dad that broke through to his troubled teenage son, and 24 years later have served over 6 million teens across the nation. More information about CHOICES is available online at www.choices.org.

What's the problem?Every school day 7,000 teens become high school dropouts...that's one every 26 seconds! Each time a teen drops out, he or she faces a lifetime of challenges and uncertainty, and also forfeits an estimated $260,000 in lifetime earnings compared to high school graduates. But we as a nation also face a lifetime of healthcare, welfare and crime costs for each dropout, as well as lost tax revenues resulting from their lower earnings, which together are estimated at $209,000 per teen. With 7,000 kids dropping out each school day, this means we are incurring future losses of $1.5 billion every school day that we allow this to continue! We all have a responsibility to do something...and now you have the opportunity!

What's the impact? We have growing evidence that CHOICES is "moving the needle." Students give CHOICES an "approval rating" of 88%, and teachers give it 97%. In a 2007 study investigating changes in student engagement in school, students indicated a 9% increase in appropriate engagement, a 9% decrease in inappropriate engagement and a 9% decrease in non-engagement coincident with CHOICES. Engagement in school has been shown to be a reliable indicator of the probability of on-time high school completion. In a 2009 study of at-risk students, those who participated in CHOICES increased their school engagement 47% more than those who did not, as reported by their teachers. This indicates a strong correlation between participation in CHOICES and positive school engagement.

Why would we do this? Delivering CHOICES to teens is a very fulfilling experience. You are the messenger! Teens love this workshop, and you will be moved by their response to you and the workshop. One teen told us, "You helped me by showing me how even now I am deciding my life and who I will become." Another said, "I liked the way he talked to us...as if we were important." And a third wrote, "Thanks to you I know how to take care of my life, and I'll never forget."