ILI Program Theory
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See also: ILI Intervention Hypothesis
The Wisconsin Youth Risk Survey (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 2001) states that, “A youth's behavior is influenced by a complexity of experiences and influences.  The positive influences that shape behavior are assets.  These assets can protect youth from risk behaviors as well as promote healthy behaviors.” The challenge for many youth prevention programs is to find a method for youth to access healthy behavior as an outcome when tempted or faced with reacting to a situation that involves high risk behaviors. A great deal of research is currently focused on understanding the concept of resilience or why some people do well with adverse situations and others do not. Resiliency is defined as the human capacity to face, overcome, and be strengthened by experiences of adversity (Grotberg, 1997). Resilience proposes that
prevention programs best succeed by focusing on the promotion of holistic health-emotional, social, physical, intellectual and spiritual (Benard, 2001).  Understanding the characteristics of resilient individuals and the process of negotiating or mediating risk situations and the protective processes that enable positive outcomes should be the theoretical base for any sound prevention process. Experiential education is a major strategy for accomplishing holistic developmental outcomes (Hattie et al, 1997). Knowing and targeting the audience to be addressed is one of the attributes of successful prevention programs (Fetsch and Silliman, 2002) and accepting and addressing the fact that cultural styles of learning do not match the typical learning environment in our local schools (Swisher, 1991) should enable our consortium's efforts to be maximized.

The basic theory of this project is to increase access to, and development of, out-of-classroom or experiential learning experiences that foster resilience and become the focus as a prevention strategy for youth in danger of high-risk behavior. These experiences should be taught in a manner that addresses different individual and cultural learning styles and be provided in a forum that breaks down the traditional geographic boundaries that exist between communities in our area.

There is currently very little mixing between Native and non-Native youth in our area. This leads to a systemic cycle of fear, suspicion, mistrust and violence that has existed for generations between cultures in our community. In this prevention effort, students will view cultural diversity from new perspectives, and understand the true traditions, stories and social context that have been misinterpreted and led to conflict in the past. They will learn, through hands-on learning, play and role playing, to solve differences and celebrate similarities with respectful, healthy techniques.
Leadership and new attitudes about the ability to work together will be developed through intensive experiential activities, service learning and peer mentoring. Students who participate in this prevention effort will develop skills to manage conflict resolution and negotiate and mediate cultural misunderstandings with peaceful results. The Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows a significant correlation between violent behavior and increased use of alcohol, drugs, sexual activity, tobacco and suicide (Wisconsin Dept. of Instruction, 2001).

Bibliography

Benard, B. and Marshall, K. 2001. Adventure Education: Making a Lasting Difference. Resilience Research For Prevention Programs. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Center For Applied Research and Educational Improvement.

Fetsch, R. and Silliman, B. 2002. Which Youth Violence Prevention Programs Work? North Carolina State University. The Forum For Family and Consumer Issues. Winter/Spring 2002, Vol. 7, No.1.

Grotberg, Edith H. 1997. The International Resilience Research Project. (Paper presented at the 55th Annual Convention of the International Council of Psychologists, Graz, Austria, July 14-16, 1996.

Hattie, J., Marsh, H., Neill, J., Richards, G. 1997. Adventure Education and Outward Bound: Out-of-Class Experiences That Make a Lasting Difference. Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 43-87.

Payne, R., DeVol, P., Smith, T. D. 2001. Bridges Out Of Poverty: Strategies For Professionals and Communities. Highlands, TX: Aha! Process.

Silcox, Harry. 1991. Abraham Lincoln High School: Community Service In Action. Phi Delta Kappan. 72(10):758-759.

Swineheart, Bruce. 1990. Youth Involvement: Developing Leaders and Strengthening Communities. Boulder, CO: Partners For Youth Leadership.

Swisher, Karen. 1991. American Indian/Alaskan Native Learning Styles: Research and Practice. ERIC Digest (#ED335175).

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. 2001. 2001 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Executive Summary. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

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