In the 1990’s, BMP founder, Larry Veal, was hired to serve as one of two Fulton County Intensive Probation Officers to address the needs of the most serious offenders in the Department of Juvenile Justice in Atlanta, Georgia. While serving in that capacity, he saw the need for and began to develop content for his client group sessions to help them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. After seeing the positive impact of those sessions on the youth and hearing a slew of testimonies, he continued to work through the following years and created a curriculum, I Have Willpower, which he believed was most effective as an intervention and preventative tool to reach kids BEFORE they needed extreme measures of discipline or punishment.
The primary goal of the I Have Willpower curriculum is to address the three main reasons why youth make negative choices and apply concepts and theories that will assist them with overcoming them. By helping youth assess their own behavioral challenges and walking them through easy-to-understand concepts to address them sets this curriculum apart from others. Our curriculum’s teachings have been used by the National Youth Crime Prevention Council, Florida Department of Education, Alabama Department of Education, National Police Athletic League, and schools in several Georgia counties (Dade, Dekalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett). The I Have Willpower program is the foundation for the development of the Gwinnett County (Georgia) Public Schools Community-Based Mentoring department.
Our key services are:
I Have Willpower Program features 8 to 10 weekly sessions that:
- Address three main reasons why youth make negative choices and the teaching of concepts and theories they can apply to overcome them
- Teach techniques for gaining self‐control, positive goal setting, and how to engage in teamwork
Target Audience: Students in grades 6 – 12 at‐risk of failing courses or dropping out of school or exemplifying unproductive behavior
Train the Trainer Workshops instructs participants on the usage and implementation of the I Have Willpower © Curriculum and program
Target Audience: Individuals, schools, churches, and youth‐serving organizations working with groups of youth in grades 6 – 12 and seeking to make a positive difference in the behavior and outlook on life of the youth they serve