Project Self Discovery

Project Self Discovery
and Natural Highs:
Artistic Alternatives to
Teenage Drug Abuse, Crime
and Violence
Harvey B. Milkman, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology
Metropolitan State College of Denver

Project Self Discovery (PSD) offers teenagers the opportunity to learn positive coping skills while developing their artistic talents. The Project promotes creative self-expression at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theatre in Denver, Colorado. The conceptual framework for PSD derives from research on the scope of adolescent problem behavior; promising intervention approaches for high risk youth; investigation of Natural Highs as behavioral and neurochemical alternatives to substance abuse and crime; and comprehensive risk and resiliency factor assessment of participants, dropouts and comparison youth.

Teenage Substance Abuse and Crime:

In 1997, the lifetime use of any illicit drug by 12th graders was 56%, with marijuana, LSD and cocaine use rates of 50%, 14% and 9%, respectively. An estimated 2.7 million juvenile arrests were made in 1995. In the same year, 1 in 12 high school students were threatened or injured with a weapon at school. 10% of high school students carried a weapon on school property in the past month. Juvenile drug arrests rose from slightly less than 80,000 in 1990 to nearly 200,000 in 1995. These findings compel our immediate attention.

Innovative Youth Programs:

Promoting alternative recreational activities, improving self-efficacy, building social competence, and providing broadening cultural experiences are the most effective strategies for delinquency and drug abuse prevention. There is a shift to a social competence model which included a developmental, ecological and skills-based approach to working with the juvenile offender; with corresponding emphasis on the identification of skill deficits associated with delinquency and on the effective matching of programs to remedy these needs.

Shift to Natural Highs:

Substance abuse can be defined as: "Self induced changes in neurotransmission that result in problem behaviors" (Milkman, Sunderwirth, 1987). The challenge for the future is to bring about self-induced changes in brain chemistry that result in optimal living: Natural Highs. These are positive feeling states triggered by the integration of thoughts, activities and personal values (Milkman and Sunderwirth, 1993).

Project Self-Discovery (PSD):

Intervention is predicated upon flexible use of Meichenbaum's (1975) stress-inoculation approach involving mental preparation, skill development and rehearsal. Mental preparation is ongoing and designed to denormalize drug abuse and violence, while engaging youth in positive teaching, peer influence and mentoring relationships. Progress is reinforced upon successful completion of three stages of program participation: Level I - Implementation has a duration of 12 weeks, Level II - the Graduate Program is on going, and Level III - Mentoring allows graduate students who have demonstrated leadership skills, to serve as mentors to youth involved in the initial 12-week intervention program.

Five core factors are addressed throughout the 23 session coping skills curriculum: 1) meaningful engagement of talents; 2) social skills; 3) cultural adventure; 4) social support; 5) stress reduction. Whether HIV prevention, refusal training, negotiation skills, etc., all lessons address one or more of the above core protective factors. Each session uses modeling and role playing to first illustrate and then practice resiliency skills. The behavioral counterpart to the coping skills curriculum is artistic instruction. Changes in body image may be expressed through movement and dance; music provides a vehicle for the expression of emotional dissonance; art translates inaccessible inner experiences to outward visualizations that can be discussed (Emunah, 1990).

Participants complete a rites of passage component where they are required to perform under challenging circumstances, culminating in a graduation ceremony that provides a platform for public statement of short and long-term goals and a demonstration of their artistic achievements.

Results:

Since the program inception in January 1993, PSD has received 861 referrals from five different counties in the Denver Metropolitan Area. Thirty-seven different agencies, and 120 youth service workers participated in the referral process. Youth who completed 80 percent or more of the initial 100 hours at PSD showed a significant reduction in scores measuring risk factors for negative peer involvement, sustained use of drugs and mental health concerns.

Funding for Project Self Discovery, a division of Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, is provided by the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, through the Federal Drug Control and System Improvement Program. For further information, contact Harvey Milkman, Ph.D., Director, Project Self Discovery, 899 Logan St., Ste. 207, Denver, CO 80203 (303/830-8500, FAX 303/830-8420).

Intervention is predicated upon flexible use of Meichenbaum's (1975) stress-inoculation approach involving mental preparation, skill development and rehearsal. Mental preparation is ongoing and designed to denormalize drug abuse and violence, while engaging youth in positive teaching, peer influence and mentoring relationships. Progress is reinforced upon successful completion of three stages of program participation: Level I - Implementation has a duration of 12 weeks, Level II - the Graduate Program is on going, and Level III - Mentoring allows graduate students who have demonstrated leadership skills, to serve as mentors to youth involved in the initial 12-week intervention program.
	Five core factors are addressed throughout the 23 session coping skills curriculum: 1) meaningful engagement of talents; 2) social skills; 3) cultural adventure; 4) social support; 5) stress reduction. Whether HIV prevention, refusal training, negotiation skills, etc., all lessons address one or more of the above core protective factors. Each session uses modeling and role playing to first illustrate and then practice resiliency skills. The behavioral counterpart to the coping skills curriculum is artistic instruction. Changes in body image may be expressed through movement and dance; music provides a vehicle for the expression of emotional dissonance; art translates inaccessible inner experiences to outward visualizations that can be discussed (Emunah, 1990).
Participants complete a rites of passage component where they are required to perform under challenging circumstances, culminating in a graduation ceremony that provides a platform for public statement of short and long-term goals and a demonstration of their artistic achievements.