SEASON TO SHARE
The iTHRIVE program, founded in Boulder County, addresses early drug abuse through schools and the justice system, offering strategies for both parents and teens.
After years of rearing kids, Jane Peterson figured she pretty much knew her way around the pitfalls of drug culture. Then her teenage son got busted at school for trying to sell acid.
Devastation and worry gave way to hope and understanding as the family was directed to iTHRIVE, an early-intervention program addressing drug and alcohol abuse from both the teen and parental perspectives.
Not only did she and her husband gain updated knowledge of the looming dangers, but they came away from the sixweek program with new insights and communication tools.
“You learn ways to talk to and understand your kid, improve communication within your family, ways to get your kid to trust you to talk to you safely,” Peterson says. “That part of the program is so strong, and so pivotal in guiding kids through this maze of a drug culture we have.”
The program addresses drug and alcohol abuse at its early stages with a twopronged approach designed to inform teens of the reasons behind drug use and give them alternatives, while also helping parents talk to their children in a meaningful way.
“So many parents don’t know what to do, they’re just at a loss,” says Deborah Roberts, executive director of the Alternatives for Youth umbrella organization. “We did a long, extensive process of looking at what other programs already were in place for that type of thing. There were some good programs for prevention in place, good programs for kids fairly seriously engaged in drugs and alcohol treatment. But nothing in between.”
That’s where iTHRIVE has pitched camp, offering services to both parents and kids from ages 12 to 17. They come referred from schools and the justice system with the hope that early intervention can put them on a more productive path.
The program took root in Boulder County, where it was offered as an alternative to school suspension, and through district attorneys’ offices, which could refer kids from diversion programs and probation. Now, both school districts and DAs in other parts of the metro area have either signed on or expressed interest in adopting iTHRIVE.
Other nonprofits, as well as police, counselors and family referrals, also channel clients to iTHRIVE for six weeks of classes that cost between $100 and $300, depending on family size and income, and are available in both English and Spanish.
Clients and their parents or guardians attend two-hour meetings once a week over the six weeks, with parents meeting separately from the kids.
Parents meet with a certified addiction counselor as well as a co-facilitator — often it’s Roberts, whose personal experience with her own child adds a realworld dimension to the discussion.
“So I sit there and I can say to the parents, here are the emotions I had,” she says. “It was hard on all aspects of my life. Parents do feel the same way. They feel beat down and don’t know what to do.”
They’re guided through ways to understand the teenage mind and deal more effectively with their children.
Meanwhile, clinical psychologist Alexis Saccoman addresses the teens, accompanied by a young adult recovering from full-blown addiction — a tandem that provides complementary clinical expertise and street cred.
“One of the key pieces of his philosophy is, if a kid is using drugs and alcohol, you can’t just tell them not to use it anymore,” Roberts says. “You have to help them find something to replace it.”
Parents and teens take pre- and postprogram tests that are analyzed by an evaluation team at Colorado State University to gauge impact on drug and alcohol abuse habits and attitudes.
The program also does educational presentations to health classes in both the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts.
“Now we’re able to engage in honest and open dialogue with kids around their use or nonuse — that’s where we are now,” says Peterson, who regards iTHRIVE as a silver lining to her family’s difficult experience. “There’s not a sense that ‘they don’t know what they’re talking about.’ It improved communication and trust both ways, because of us being more educated and informed.”