Mentoring & Prevention

Mentoring and Prevention Programs

Our mentoring and prevention services are designed to empower participants to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to make healthy choices and prevent destructive behaviors. Provided in collaboration with area schools and community partners, these services are designed to encourage and support both individual and community-level change.

iC.A.R.E. Mentoring®

The mission of iC.A.R.E. Mentoring® is to foster relationships that cultivate mutual mentor/mentee development and empower youth. Our vision is to enhance the quality of life for mentees by reducing achievement gaps so that every child has an equitable opportunity for success in the classroom and in life.

A school-based mentoring program, iC.A.R.E. supports students through positive, purposeful mentoring relationships with community volunteers. All volunteer mentors are provided with “best practice” systems, processes, and innovative resources to improve efficiency and quality of mentoring services.

Say It Straight

Say It Straight™ (“SIS”) is a research-based, action-oriented experiential training program with cognitive reinforcement that transforms relationships of submission-dominance to relationships of equal value. The program uses Virginia Satir’s communication approach, combined with action-oriented behavioral skills practice, and has been conducted in diverse settings and cultures with both adults and children.

Barberton Community Wellness Collaborative

A Community Coalition-Building Initiative

The Barberton Community Wellness Collaborative (BCWC) focuses on providing access to impactful services that prioritize social emotional learning and develop the whole child. The BCWC partners with schools, families, and the community to provide quality and long-term care to Barberton City School students (PreK – 12th graders) through an intentional, coordinated and collaborative response designed to strengthen their resiliency and address their needs. By supporting their social emotional needs and their educational achievement together, children become well-rounded and healthy students who will successfully transition into adulthood, thereby supporting, sustaining, and enriching their community.

BCWC objectives include:

• Develop a model school-based behavioral health and wellness program that serves students from early childhood through early adulthood and across the continuum of care 
• Coordinate the efforts of community partners to ensure student needs are met, gaps in care are addressed, and services aren’t duplicated 
• Assess student risk by utilizing validated screening tools to identify risk and protective factors and help to build assets in students throughout the district
• Improve student engagement and attendance through a focus on the Ohio Department of Education’s domains of social-emotional learning, leadership, and reasoning

Health and Wellness Programs

At Red Oak, we recognize that even students without a mental health diagnosis can have significant unmet social and emotional needs that exceed the capacity of even the most dedicated school counseling teams. Red Oak has teamed up with several local schools to provide health and wellness supports to these students. In this model, we have shifted the focus to wellness vs. illness with a goal of preventing a need for more intensive intervention or treatment in the future.

Our wellness programs include groups designed to help participants discover their internal “wellness” strengths, promote protective factors and reduce risk factors through an asset model as opposed to a deficit model. These in-school groups are safe and nurturing environments that cultivate empowerment and development of the youth participants.