Early Childhood Education

Wyman’s evidenced based Teen Outreach Program® (TOP) is a positive youth development program designed to help teens build educational success, life and leadership skills, and healthy behaviors and relationships.

Impact:

Teens build and hone social and emotional skills, like managing emotions, problem-solving, decision- making and empathy, which are proven to help them be successful during the teenage years, and also later in life.

Teens improve academic performance, and lower risky behaviors like truancy and suspension that lead to dropout.

Rigorous research, using randomized control and quasi-experimental methods, shows TOP works- resulting in lower likelihood of pregnancy, risky sexual behavior, course failure, school suspension and skipping school (Allen and Philliber, 1997; 2001; McBride et al., 2014; Walsh-Buhi et al., 2016). TOP has been profiled as 'an exemplary social and emotional learning program for teens" by the Social and Emotional Learning Challenge, a partnership with the Susan Crown Exchange and the David P. Weikart Center for Youth Program Quality. Please visit https://wymancenter.org/top/ for the most updated version of TOP's evidence based listings.

As a Certified National Replication Partner, CJFHC trains Facilitators in TOP's Positive Youth Development approach. The core components of this approach include Weekly Peer Group Meetings, the TOP Curriculum, meaningful Community Service Learning and High Quality Facilitation. The TOP Curriculum is
medically accurate, inclusive, trauma informed, culturally appropriate and developmentally appropriate for teens aged 12-19. The curriculum focuses on 3 core content areas that work together as protective factors, reducing the impact of risk and promoting positive youth development: Skill-building,
developing a sense of self and making connections.

CJFHC partners with School Based Youth Services, Community Based Organizations, Hospitals and School Districts to implement TOP Clubs throughout the State of NJ. Check out what TOP has to offer at https://wymancenter.org/top/.

The Teen Health Initiatives also offers: The ETR Curriculum-Reducing the Risk: Building Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD and HIV. Students will learn how HIV and other STDs are transmitted and how teens can best protect themselves. Abstinence—Choosing not to have sex — will be given as the best choice for
students to prevent pregnancy and STDs. Medically accurate information about other protection methods will also be provided. Reducing the Risk is an evidence-based program. Teens will learn refusal skills or ways to say NO without jeopardizing good relationships, but leaving no room for misinterpretation or ambiguity about the decision to not have sex or refuse to have unprotected sex.

They will also learn delay tactics and alternative actions or ways students can avoid a situation or delay taking action until they have had time to decide what to do or say until they are more prepared to make a decision.

Students will learn and practice ways to resist pressure to have sex. Communication and decision- making skills will be taught throughout the lessons.

If you are interested in implementing TOP or RTR please contact the Program Manager at 732-937-5437.