About the Project - About POWER SOURCE - The Power Source Facilitator's Manual
How to order Power Source - Power Source Professional Trainings
Power Source Video Series - About the Lionheart Foundation
Lionheart HOME - Directly From Kids - About the author, Robin Casarjian
About the author, Bethany Casarjian - What is Emotional Literacy?
Please Join Us - Visit The National Emotional Literacy Project for Prisoners

In search of an integrated and effective prevention and rehabilitation curriculum written specifically for highly at-risk youth and young adults, treatment staff across the country asked Lionheart to create a version of Houses of Healing that would address the unique emotional, cognitive, and social needs of this population.

In response, psychologist Bethany Casarjian, Ph.D., and Houses of Healing author Robin Casarjian, M.A., have developed, piloted and written POWER SOURCE: Taking Charge of Your Life. An accompanying Power Source Facilitator’s Manual presents a comprehensive, hands-on guide for frontline clinicians and youth staff who facilitate individual and group work based on the book. The first two videos in the seven-part Power Source Video Series are also now available. The Power Source Video Series brings an added strength and versatility to the program, offering a powerful teaching tool and stepping off point for youth and staff working with the curriculum.

A primary objective of the Power Source program is to give juvenile offenders and high-risk youth effective ways to: (1) acquire basic emotional literacy skills – the absence of which have played a pivotal role in their emotional, academic and social problems and the presence of which serve as positive anchors in the present and into adulthood; (2) constructively manage and heal the anger, grief, shame, rage, and other highly charged emotions that often precipitate negative and high-risk behavior; and (3) help youth develop a healthier, more cohesive sense of self and a positive future orientation.

In 2003, Lionheart staff embarked on a comprehensive outreach campaign to make Power Source available to programs for youth-at-risk throughout the United States. Our efforts have been far-reaching and challenging. Unlike the prison project, distribution is decentralized. In addition to juvenile institutions and detention centers, we are contacting community agencies, private and public schools, residential programs, and group homes – any place that serves highly at-risk youth that has a counseling and/or library component. This distribution effort launched Lionheart’s National Emotional Literacy Project for Youth-at-Risk.

Response from the Field

The response to Lionheart’s distribution efforts has been overwhelmingly positive. Professionals across the country are excited to learn about and receive copies of Power Source, and, with significantly diminished budgets, they are enormously grateful to receive multiple free copies. After receiving donated copies, many programs with budgets are choosing to purchase additional books and manuals. A few of these programs/agencies stand out:

ROCA is a dynamic community center in Chelsea, MA with an outstanding national reputation in youth development.  Power Source is being integrated into all programs for the youth they serve, including the “Via Street School” they conduct under a major grant from the Kellogg Foundation. ROCA has purchased over 300 copies.

The MAAC Community Charter School with a strong Youth-Build USA component in Chula Vista, CA purchased 250 copies of Power Source for their students.

The superintendent of Butte County Juvenile Hall in California purchased 410 copies of Power Source so that he could send every boy home with a copy.

Feedback on Power Source from both nationally recognized authorities on youth development and clinicians working directly with youth has been exceptional. The eager reception from professionals speaks to the quality, flexibility and effectiveness of the program.

Power Source Survey

In July, 2004, The Lionheart Foundation emailed its first Power Source survey to over 200 professionals who we determined had access to Power Source for a length of time adequate enough to offer an informed response.  Feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  We heard from program managers, counselors, therapists, social workers, corrections and probation professionals, public school teachers and administrators in public and private facilities.

100% of respondents find Power Source to be beneficial to their group work with youth.  The majority indicated that, among other positive indicators,

• youth receive fewer rule infractions,
• appear to have better anger management skills,
• appear to have more insight into their offending/at-risk behavior and
• counselors reported a high level of group participation and engagement in Power Source groups, noticeably different from other programs.     

"I would like to thank you and the Lionheart Foundation for reaching out to our facility and providing us with Power Source. I find the book to be an invaluable resource for use in group and individual therapy sessions. Often the youth ask to borrow copies to read on their own time in their cells. Affiliates of the “Crip” gang have completed a module on anger management and risk-taking. I have been able to retain every member of this group since its inception. I look forward to expanding my use of Power Source as my experiences so far have been overwhelming positive." - Counselor, Los Angeles, CA

"I decided to run a group with Power Source. The kids loved it. It’s an amazing book. I have been looking for something like this for a long time." - Psychologist, Allentown, PA

Beyond our expectations, we receive extremely touching testimony from youth each week. ( See Directly From Kids) We are so gratified that they have taken time to write to us and let us know how they have been helped and how they, too, are spreading the word.

To date, Lionheart has distributed over 22,000 copies of Power Source nationwide.

The Power Source Research Project 

With support from the Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Lionheart has partnered with the National Development and Research Institute (NDRI) and the MA Department of Youth Services (MA DYS) to accomplish our initial research goals. Preliminary work to determine the research tools, establish the intervention sites, develop protocol design, and gain approval from the Internal Review Boards of both the Massachusetts Division of Youth Services (MA DYS) and NDRI has been accomplished.

The interventions will be conducted from May 2005 to April 2006.  They will take place in three facilities where youth under the auspices of the MA DYS reside.

The Need

According to President’s Task Force on Disadvantaged Youth Report published by the National Academy of Science, nearly 20 million teens in this country are at serious risk of not achieving positive adulthood.

According to the American Correctional Association, there are almost 400,000 youth in juvenile detention centers in the United States. This number does not include the highly at-risk youth who fill residential treatment centers, drug treatment facilities, community-based alternative-to-incarceration programs, middle and high schools, nor the adolescents who are serving sentences in adult correctional facilities. Simply put, the number of at-risk youth in need of rehabilitative and preventative services is enormous.

Hundreds of thousands of children grow up with violence, abuse, and neglect in their families and communities. Many grow up in poverty and are subjected to destructive “educational” experiences. These highly at-risk youth reach adolescence without the emotional and social tools necessary to lead productive lives. Often they lack the support systems and coping skills to deal effectively with the intense emotions they experience. Angry, lost, and hopeless, many turn to high-risk and self-destructive behaviors as a means to escape from their feelings.

Power Source helps these youth identify their strengths and take control over their lives while increasing their understanding of the emotions and beliefs driving their high-risk and offending behavior.

The goal of National Emotional Literacy Project for Youth at Risk is to provide the resources necessary to help break the cycles of violence and addiction; touch the lives of countless youth who find themselves lost and in trouble; empower youth-at-risk with concrete skills through a comprehensive emotional literacy program; and establish a sense of hopefulness that will serve them in living productive, rewarding lives.