Positive Peer Culture (Modern Applications of Social Work) [Paperback]

Larry K. Brendtro (Author), Harry H. Vorrath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1985 | ISBN-10: 0202360385 | ISBN-13: 978-0202360386 | Edition: 2

This revision of an important and path-breaking work holds to its central argument that troubled young people can develop self-worth, significance, dignity, and responsibility only through commitment to the positive values of helping and caring for others. An enlarged and revised edition of the authors' pioneering work on building positive youth culture, Positive Peer Culture retains the practical orientation that made the original attractive to teachers and youth workers, while adding new material on positive peer culture (PPC) in schools and community settings, research on PPC, and guidelines for maintaining program effectiveness and quality. Concepts of positive peer culture have been applied in a wide variety of educational and treatment settings including public and alternative schools, group homes, and residential centers. Vorrath and Brendtro describe specific procedures for getting youth "hooked on helping" through peer counseling groups, and for generalizing caring behavior beyond the school or treatment environment through community-based service learning projects. The authors contend that the young people who populate our nation's schools are in desperate need of an antidote to the narcissism, malaise and antisocial life-styles that have become so prevalent, and that this book seeks to provide a way of meeting their increasing cry to be used in some demanding cause. On publication of the first edition, Richard P. Barth, Frank A. Daniels Professor for Human Services Information Policy, School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill called Positive Peer Culture "a significant contribution to the field." Harry H. Vorrath is both the designer and developer of the Positive Peer Culture treatment model. He has been president of the Center for Group Studies in Shenandoah, Virginia, and directed the Newgate Project at the Minnesota Reformatory, Saint Cloud while he was associate professor at the University of Minnesota. Larry K. Brendtro is president of Reclaiming Youth International, a nonprofit organization providing training, research, and advocacy for youth in conflict within family, school, and community. He has been a professor of special education/behavioral disorders at the University of Illinois, The Ohio State University, and Augustana College, and is co-editor of the interdisciplinary journal Reclaiming Children and Youth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Vorrath and Brendtro's second edition of Positive Peer Culture is a strong contribution to youth service providers. " -- Contemporary Psychology

About the Author

Larry K. Brendtro is professor at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he directs the Black Hills Seminars, a training institute for professionals serving troubled youth. He is former president of the Starr Commonwealth in Michigan and Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Aldine Transaction; 2 edition (December 31, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0202360385
• ISBN-13: 978-0202360386
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #465,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Caring For Kids & Empowering Kids to Care, January 6, 2002

By 

"thesmilingpriest" (Norfolk, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Positive Peer Culture (Modern Applications of Social Work) (Paperback)

Positive Peer Culture is an indispensable asset to all those committed to helping young people reach their full potential as individuals and members of their communities. Vorranth's and Brendtro's writing is the result of a fruitful dialectic of theory and praxis; Positive Peer Culture is a model for youth treatment and empowerment grounded in effective practice. I know of no other approach that so effectively challenges young people to assume the task of caring, helping, changing, and living responsibly (and I've experiences several approaches).

The authors include the vital information necessary for both youth workers and adolescents to effectively implement Positive Peer Culture in residential and school-based programs. This volume also contains insights gained from the practice of Positive Peer Culture not available in the first edition, including discussion of common mistakes staff make during the implementation process and a chapter on evaluating programs based on PPC.

I have seen PPC empower many young people to live responsible and meaningful lives-young people who where labeled hopeless and unreachable. I first read the volume, "Positive Peer Culture," at age thirteen while attending a PPC based residential treatment program. At age twenty-three, I find the authors' concepts and methods as inspiring and compelling as when I first discovered them; they are set forth in simple and straightforward terms easily understood by professionals, laymen and youth alike.

Although PPC has been used primarily to empower adolescent offenders, the ideas in this book, if applied, are helpful for working with young people from a variety of backgrounds in a variety of settings-from community based programs, to public schools, to juvenile detention facalities. In addition to professional youth workers, teachers, ministers, parents, and youth themselves can benefit greatly from reading "Positive Peer Culture."

People who believed in empowering young people asked me to read this book and practice the principles it sets forth so that I might understand the power of caring. If you care about kids, I hope you will buy and read this book so that you may be better equipped to empower them to become the great men and women they have the potential to be.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Training Manual for Youth Workers, March 16, 2000

By 

Doug Lafreniere (Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Positive Peer Culture (Modern Applications of Social Work) (Paperback)

Positive Peer Culture is an excellent resource for youth workers working with young offenders in a residential custody setting. Ten years of using the principals, which are so clearly explained in the manual, to create a climate of caring and trust with young offenders, has convinced me that Brendtro and Vorrath have got it right. There is no better system of behaviour management and cognitive restucturing in existence that I know of!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent methodology for working with troubled youth, December 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Positive Peer Culture (Modern Applications of Social Work) (Paperback)

This book is the foundation for Positive Peer Culture; a very powerful treatment approach that mobilizes the natural and dynamic potential of adolescent peer groups. Working with delinquent and emotially disturbed youth in residential treatment for over 25 years I have found this to be an outstanding process for staff and youth alike and have utilzed it as our primary treatment approach at the Connecticut Junior Republic.