As the end of the 2013–2014 school year approaches, organizers of a Positive Life Skills program at Chilton County High School are marking the completion of the program’s inaugural semester.

All ninth graders at CCHS (about 215) went through this year’s program, led by Teal Dick, director of the Alabama Family Resource Center in Clanton.

Dick said the program is a joint venture with the SPAN Program of Chilton County; the county’s Juvenile Probation Office and District Court Judge Rhonda Hardesty; CCHS Principal Cynthia Stewart and staff; and Jacob Knight, owner of The UPS Store in Clanton.

The program is designed to give students information on how to lead positive lives, regardless of their backgrounds, and to avoid potholes such as behavioral problems and substance abuse.

“It’s part of Dr. Stewart’s emphasis on wanting to get some positive, practical information to the kids,” Dick said. “It centers on the idea … of being success- and goal-oriented.”

With the help of CCHS teachers, Dick led the program three days a week during flex periods, which were non-academic class periods for students.

“We do anger management or substance abuse type stuff, but in a positive light,” he said. “We have a section on bullying. We do it in terms of drama that will keep you in a certain kind of lifestyle that’s not positive.”

The program is funded by grants through the Department of Youth Services in conjunction with the SPAN Program of Chilton County.

It is free for students, and Dick said Knight provided curriculum materials for all students going through the program at cost.

“The curriculum is designed for them to do it at home with an adult and come back to school and process the information,” Dick said, adding he hopes to improve this aspect of the program. “This was our first attempt at it. We’re going to look at ways to make it better.”

Dick counsels both children and adults on a regular basis and said adults have told him they wish they had received the information he provides in the program when they were in school.

“We try to get it to kids before they get in crisis,” Dick said. “It’s an attempt to try to be proactive in getting this information to kids.”