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Pathways to Tolerance

A Juvenile Intervention and Prevention Program

PATHWAYS to Tolerance is a program created by the San Diego Regional Office of the Anti-Defamation League. The program serves adolescents in the juvenile court system who have committed a hate crime or bias incident, or having been charged with any form of illegal behavior, show evidence of racial, ethnic, religious or other form of intolerance. The program will also serve students in the Grossmont Union High School District who are referred by school administrators after showing evidence of the above indicators. Through facilitated group interaction, integrating education with cognitive-behavioral, experiential and self-psychological interventions, the program aims to effect a measurable increase in tolerant attitudes and beliefs. Skill building activities will be used to promote anger management, decision making and critical thinking skills.

PATHWAYS to Tolerance is a 12 session program in which juveniles, ages 13-18 will be required to participate as a condition of their court ordered probation plan or other mandatory contract or school referral. The program will be conducted through group sessions, facilitated by professionals and supervised by a licensed MFCC or LCSW. Successful completion of this program will become a condition of successful completion of their probation or other mandatory contract or school referral.

Groups will have 8-12 participants. The program will include a one-hour individual intake/assessment session and weekly two-hour group sessions. Midway through the program, there will be a half-day (4-hour) experiential team-building activity and a full-day field trip to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

Parents will be required to attend the initial assessment, a mid-way session, and the graduation. In addition, a Parent Support Group will be conducted at the same time as the adolescent groups. Probation Officers or the referring school will receive written progress reports and timely phone reports of any critical incidents.

PATHWAYS to Tolerance also includes a prevention component. Six Names Can Really Hurt Us assembly programs will be held on school sites each year of the program. These assemblies empower students who have been victims, perpetrators, bystanders and confronters of bias to speak out to their school. An action planning session follows the assembly, after which the students join together to share ideas and make a commitment to promoting tolerance on their campuses.

Full process and program evaluation will be conducted by SANDAG, the San Diego Association of Governments.

For more information, contact Denise Frey at (619) 293-3770 or freyd@adl.org.

Download: Information leaflet