Skip to main content

Independent Living Services

REACH

Resources & Education for Adolescents Choosing Healthy Behaviors

LSS REACH (Resources & Education for Adolescents Choosing Healthy Behaviors) helps at-risk youth ages 10-19 practice healthy behaviors through evidence-based programming proven to reduce incidents of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
 

Evidence-Based Education

Many youth never have the opportunity to learn how to avoid risky behaviors or resist peer pressure to engage in sex or drug use. By combining evidence-based educational programming with the support of invested adults, REACH empowers youth to make healthy choices in all aspects of their lives.
 

REACH programming was made possible by Funding Opportunity Number HHS-2016-ACF-ACYF-SR-1197 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Its contents are solely the responsibility of Lutheran Social Services and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Curricula for Ages 10-14

TOP – Teen Outreach Program

This is a positive youth development program designed to build teens’ educational success, life and leadership skills, and healthy behaviors and relationships. As a result, teens are better able to navigate challenges during teenage years—a time when decisions matter.

  • Teens build and hone social and emotional skills like managing emotions, problem-solving, decision-making and empathy, that are proven to help them be successful during the teenage years, and later in life.
  • Teens improve academic performance and lower risky behaviors like truancy and suspension that lead to dropout.

The curriculum consists of 12 hours of content divided into twelve 60-minute modules to small groups of six to 12 participants, ages 12-19.
 

Curricula for Ages 14-19

MARS — Motivating Adolescents to Reduce Sexual Risk

A single-session, group-based intervention designed to reduce sexual risk behaviors among high-risk adolescents. This three-hour program is delivered in small groups of youth ages 15-19 and seeks to increase condom use and reduce substance-use-related risk behaviors.
 

Curricula for Parents

Families Talking Together

A brief individual or small group parent-based intervention to prevent/reduce adolescent sexual risk behaviors includes face-to-face or virtual parent sessions with facilitators, focused on:

  • parent-adolescent communication
  • monitoring and supervision
  • relationship-building activities

After a two-hour class, parents will gain the skills to talk to their children about sexual decision-making, with the intent of delaying too-early sexual activity and reducing the frequency of adolescent sexual intercourse. A follow-up class is held to check on progress, answer questions, and provide additional training and resources.

Contact REACH

ILS-Reach@LssSD.org

Sioux Falls: 605-221-2346 
Rapid City: 605-791-6700

MENU CLOSE