Our Self-Determination Program helps students to build skills in order to:
- Determine what is important to them. Students can then make good decisions about what they want to do and accomplish.
- Make choices based on strengths and interests. Students have the greatest chance for successful outcomes when there is a good match between their interests and abilities and the goals they have selected.
- Set short-term and long-term goals. Students learn to differentiate and set their long-term goals and the intermediary short-term goals that will lead to achievement of their long-term goals.
- Put together workable action plans. Students learn to develop reasonable and progressive actions that would result in accomplishing a step in the process toward achieving their short-term goals. They learn to compare actual outcomes with expected outcomes and make the necessary adjustments to keep their plan on track.
- Identify and anticipate problems that may come up. Students prepare to take action by anticipating and trying to predict what will happen as a result of their actions and decide if they want to move forward or modify the plan. Students can rehearse their actions in a supportive environment before putting their plan into action.
- Communicate in ways that support personal goals. Students learn to effectively communicate about their goals and their plan of action toward achieving those goals. They also gain experience communicating about problems that may arise and, through discussions with teachers and mentors, they learn to employ creative problem-solving strategies and negotiate toward solutions.
