Edmund F. Benson was one of those boys parents told their sons and daughters to avoid. He was bad news -- an 8th-grade dropout and a rebel. Lucky for Ed, drug abuse wasn’t prevalent in those days and a life of crime wasn't a consideration. Call it luck, fate or sheer will, but Ed was determined to make his way in the world.
Ed was doubly lucky when, in 1966, he married Susan, a schoolteacher who would help him realize and achieve his dreams, including that of rescuing disadvantaged youth.
Upon retirement, Ed wanted to dedicate his life to helping high-risk youth realize their full potential. After deciding that he didn’t want any more of these so-called "rebels" suffering as he had, Ed spent months talking to teens behind bars, learning what they needed to turn their lives around.
With Susan’s help, he set about creating Secrets of Success: 260 Life-Skills Lessons, a program specifically written for students reading four to six grade levels below average, youth and teens whose fingers tremble and stomachs churn at the thought of picking up a pen to write or standing in front of a group to spell out a word.
In 1986, the Bensons created the Miami, Florida-based ARISE Foundation, a not-for-profit entity aiming to teach high-risk youth and teens, from Pre-K through high school, life-management skills lessons on subjects like personal safety, anger and conflict management, staying in school, teen parenting, dealing with depression, and so much more. In the nearly two decades since the inception of ARISE, the Bensons and the organization as a whole have received many local, regional and national awards. In 1988, the Miami-Dade (FL) Board of County Commissioners named a street in Ed’s honor, bestowing upon him and ARISE their highest honor.
The Bensons went on to personally research, write and edit every one of hundreds of life-skills lessons and curricula, books, posters and videos. Between all of these materials, ARISE’s intense one-day instructor training and initiatives like the ARISE Juvenile Delinquency Intervention/Re-Entry program, the Bensons have given the gifts of education, awareness and pride in learning to incarcerated young men and women whom many in our society would rather ignore.
What began as a dream on the Boston streets of Ed’s teenage years and in Susan's Miami classroom has become a unique and proven entity whose fine reputation continues to spread from coast to coast, and even beyond the U.S. Each day brings continued fulfillment of the Bensons’ dream to tenderize tough kids through lessons that are interactive, fun and memorable.
