Respectful Alliances:
RAP and PPC

Building positive peer cultures and inspired staff teams

This Circle of Courage course consists of two separate two-day trainings. Response Ability Pathways (RAP) is a basic certification course for all who work with youth. Positive Peer Culture (PPC) offers another level of training for clinicians, group leaders, supervisors, senior youth workers, and educators. These two evidence-based trainings transform trauma into resilience by strengthening Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity.

Response Ability Pathways (RAP)

Restoring Bonds of Respect (2-day training)

RAP training provides all who care about and work with young people the practical tools to respond to needs instead of reacting to problems.

Lesley du Toit

Pretoria, South Africa

RAP employs three natural, brain-based helping strategies: Connecting for support, Clarifying challenges, and Restoring respect. These relational tools for talking with persons in conflict replace coercion with communication. While there are many crisis-intervention models, RAP provides the simplest research-validated method to turn problems into opportunities for learning and growth. Piloted in South Africa to transform services to young people at risk, RAP has been used worldwide. Co-authors of RAP Larry Brendtro and Lesley du Toit have fully updated this 2-day training to provide essential skills for all who deal with challenging children and youth in any setting. This universal-design course translates research on resilience, trauma, culture, and neuroscience into terms readily understandable by lay person and professional alike. Training is enriched with video clips and experiential learning activities. RAP is relevant to parents, foster parents, educators, youth workers, and clinicians, and can also be taught to young people who help support their peers and family.

Positive Peer Culture (PPC)

Building Strengths in Youth (2-day training)

PPC is a peer-helping model designed to improve social competence and cultivate strengths in youth. Care and concern for others is the defining element of PPC.

California Evidence-Based Clearing House

PPC training provides advanced, evidence-based strategies for creating positive climates in schools, juvenile justice, residential treatment, and community settings. Youth disconnected from adults often gravitate to negative peer cultures and engage in high-risk behavior. Punishment only intensifies conflict with authority and builds a culture of bullying. Negative peer influence can be reversed by enlisting youth in prosocial helping roles and building respectful bonds with adults. Positive Peer Culture (PPC) has been refined over decades of research on building strengths in troubled youth. Grounded in Circle of Courage principles, this peer-helping model is now listed as a research-based practice.

University Credit

Participants can enroll for graduate workshop university credit in either Psychology or Special Education. Registration forms will be provided at the training. A course syllabus is available at reclaiming.org/grad-credit. There is a $300 USD tuition fee (for 3 credits) in addition to the training registration fee. Payment for university credit is made to Reclaiming Youth at Risk and given to the instructor onsite at the training. Credit is offered through Reclaiming Youth at Risk and Augustana University, a fully accredited university located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.

Related Courses

Moccasin Paths and Other Trails

Draw together Indigenous knowledge and contemporary research to build strengths in Native American and First Nations youth, families, schools, and communities.

Planning Restorative Outcomes

Also known as "PRO Assessment," this course reframes problems as opportunities for learning with children and youth at risk.

The Three Pillars of Transforming Care

Not another trauma training for therapists, this training addresses those working directly with traumatized youngsters in foster care, residential care, schools, youth justice workers, and the family.

About the Course Authors & Trainers

Larry Brendtro, PhD

Larry K. Brendtro, PhD, earned a doctorate from the University of Michigan specializing in children with emotional and behavioral challenges. He is director of Reclaiming Youth at Risk which provides research, publications, and training in strength- based approaches to youth, families, and communities. He is president emeritus at Starr Commonwealth in Michigan where he piloted the evidence-based Positive Peer Culture model which builds cultures of respect in education, treatment, and juvenile justice settings. He has wide experience as a youth worker, educator, and psychologist, and has taught at the University of Illinois, The Ohio State University, and Augustana University. The author of 18 books and over 200 articles, Dr. Brendtro joined with Lakota psychologist Martin Brokenleg and educator Steve Van Bockern to develop the Circle of Courage model which combines traditional Indigenous wisdom with emerging science of positive youth development. He trains professionals world-wide and is currently consulting with the Office of Refugee Resettlement on applying the Circle of Courage with children and youth from Latin America.

Steve Van Bockern, EdD

Steve Van Bockern, EdD, is Professor of Education at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He has been a teacher and principal and developed experiential alternative education programs for gifted students and those with emotional and behavioral problems. He helped establish the annual Black Hills Seminars and formerly directed Reclaiming Youth International. Extending his earlier research on Reclaiming Youth at Risk, his new book, Schools that Matter, applies Circle of Courage principles to create powerful learning environments where all students can thrive. He and Mark Freado have been active in strength-based assessment with youth in the justice system and those being excluded from school. Dr. Van Bockern has trained educators and youth workers in many nations.

Mark Freado, MA

Mark Freado is founder and Director Growing Edge Training Associates of Westerville, Ohio. He has been Director of the International Training Network for CF Learning, President of Reclaiming Youth International, Executive Director of the American Re-Education Association, and State Director (WV & OH) with Pressley Ridge. Freado’s 40-year professional career encompasses contributions to the mental health field, public education, social services, program development, leadership, consultation, and training. He is a master trainer of Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) and has trained more people in this skill-based course than anyone in the world. He is the co-creator of training, The Art of Kid Whispering: Reaching the Inside Kid. Freado is also a master trainer of Planning Restorative Outcomes: Transforming Assessment, a master trainer of Three Pillars of Transforming Care: Trauma and Resilience in the Other 23 Hours, and a certified trainer of Situational Leadership II with the Ken Blanchard Company. He has worked with private providers, public agencies, and schools throughout the United States as well as Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, and Asia, speaking, consulting, and delivering training services. He specializes in program development, leadership skills, and interventions for children and adolescents who have experienced trauma, and their families. Freado holds master’s degrees in Forensic Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, and in Counseling from West Virginia University.

Our Success at a Glance

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Mission Statement

The mission of Reclaiming Youth at Risk is to provide research, training, and consultation to build strengths in children, families, schools, and communities. For thousands of years, American Indian cultures nourished respectful and courageous children without employing punitive discipline. Drawing from these little-understood resources, we provide a holistic approach to reclaiming youth at risk. Courage for the discouraged — for youth and for professionals as well!

Our Core Values

Our core values are grounded in the Circle of Courage philosophy, emphasizing belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity as essential to holistic development.

Our Philosophy

At Reclaiming Youth at Risk, we believe that every child has the innate capacity for positive growth. Our philosophy is rooted in the principles of the Circle of Courage, which asserts that the fulfillment of universal growth needs — belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity — is crucial for the development of all young people. By integrating these values with the latest in psychological research and practical application, we strive to create environments that promote resilience and thriving, not just for youth but for the communities that support them.

Respectful Alliances: RAP and PPC