The Step-Up CurriculumAbout the Curriculum The Step-Up curriculum was completed in 2004, after six years of developing and field testing exercises and activities in Step-Up groups. We began with a domestic violence treatment model modified to address the circumstances of teen violence with family members. We continued to adapt the curriculum, making changes and developing new sessions as we learned from observing the progress of parents and teens in the program. We consider the curriculum a ‘work in progress’ as we continue to learn and evaluate its effectiveness. The Step-Up curriculum is designed for counselors who facilitate groups with teens who have been violent towards a parent or family member. The curriculum uses a cognitive behavioral skills based approach to help teens stop the use of violent and abusive behaviors and teaches nonviolent, respectful ways of communicating and resolving conflict with family members. The curriculum also includes materials for a parent group where parents learn how to respond to violence in the home, get support from other parents and gain new skills for parenting teens that promote respectful relationships. The curriculum is designed to include parents at the beginning of each group session for ‘check-in’ and then separate into a parent group and teen group, or stay together for the session to work on learning a skill together. The curriculum has 21 sessions designed to be 1.5 to 2 hrs. once a week. Facilitators may vary the timing to accommodate the needs of the group. It is designed as a closed group, but can function as an ongoing group as well. King County uses the curriculum with an ongoing group in order to accommodate the needs of court referred youth. Ongoing groups have the advantage of newcomers learning from participants who have been attending longer. The curriculum assumes the teens have been arrested with a domestic violence charge and are court mandated to attend. However, the curriculum can be used with non-mandated youth. Parts of the Step-Up curriculum can be used in family or individual sessions when group work is not an option, although the benefits of group work significantly increase effectiveness of the intervention(see ‘What are the Benefits of Group Counseling’, above).
Keystone of Step-Up Curriculum: Abuse and Respect Wheels The two wheels below are a keystone of Step-Up. The overall goal of the program is to help youth move from the abuse wheel to the respect wheel. The curriculum is designed to address behaviors in each section of the wheels, teaching skills to stop abusive behaviors and replace them with corresponding behaviors on the respect wheel. The wheels are also used as a tool for raising awareness of behavior, and demonstrating accountability about behaviors used at home every week. Youth use the wheels at the beginning of each session to reflect on their behavior the previous week and report to group what they did that was abusive and respectful at home. Youth use the wheels to make weekly behavioral goals- choosing one behavior from the wheels to work on during the week and reporting back to group the following week about their progress. The wheels provide a framework for talking about behavior. When a teen says, “I had an argument with my mom”, the facilitator asks, “Were you on the ‘abuse wheel’ or the ‘respect wheel’ during that argument?” If the teen was on the abuse wheel, the next question is, “how could you have talked to your mom about that and stayed on the respect wheel?” The skills in the curriculum help teens and parents learn how to talk about problems, argue and resolve conflict while staying on the ‘respect wheel’. Parents report that the wheels give them a new way to talk about behaviors at home, i.e., a parent might say to their teen, “can you say that again, and stay on the respect wheel?” Step-Up families get to know the wheels very well by the end of the program, and have a tool they can continue to use long after they leave Step-Up.
 
Can I look at the Step-Up curriculum?
Please feel free to view the curriculum. The Step-Up curriculum is copyrighted and requires permission of the authors to print or use. If you are interested in printing the curriculum and/or using it, please request our permission by emailing us at lily.anderson@kingcounty.gov or greg.routt@kingcounty.gov or call us at (206) 296-7841. We would like to know about your organization/service and how you plan to use the curriculum. Step-Up staff provides training and consultation on how to start your own program and use the curriculum - Training for Your Agency.
Step-Up Curriculum Materials
The Step-Up curriculum is in four separate documents:
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