Two College of Education counselor preparation programs that have worked with more than 2,000 local juvenile offenders over the past decade have been recognized by an international group of counseling professionals.
The Juvenile Counseling and Assessment Program and the Gaining Insight into Relationships for Lifelong Success program recently received the 2005 Outstanding Program Award from the International Association of Addictions and Offender Counseling.
Designed more than a decade ago by Georgia Calhoun and Brian Glaser, faculty members in counseling and human development services, the programs provide training for future counselors, opportunities for research and mental health services to court-referred juvenile delinquents in Clarke, Oconee and surrounding counties.
The counselors are doctoral or master’s-level counselors-in-training whose work is closely supervised by faculty. Research focuses on how counseling benefits juveniles and on how prevention and intervention programs can be developed for the community. The programs are a collaboration between UGA’s College of Education, the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice and local courts. The programs have provided the required 700-plus hours of clinical training to more than 80 UGA graduate students and therapeutic services to about 200 juvenile offenders each year.