familiar with our program and methods of approaching young people. They also met in groups with DAWN members as well as participating in a group session themselves. The feedback we have received from the participants in these workshops has been very gratifying. Although none have started their own program, several report working more effectively in their present capacities with young people. We hope to do more in this area. ROBERT H. EICHBERG, M.A.

THE DAWN PROGRAM

BACKGROUND

Many of today's young people feel it necessary to supplement their growth with experiences not provided through the school system. The traditional supplementary resources-boys clubs, YMCA and various religious organizations— don't seem to be filling the needs of many primary and secondary school-age students. As an alternative, a large proportion of today's youth are turning to one another rather than to the adult population (i.e. the establishment) for direction. Unfortunately the road so often taken involves drug use, and in many cases the eventual dropping out of society for various lengths of time. Hopefully, many will re-enter the mainstream of society, either flowing with it or creating waves in order to change it. It seems likely, however, that a reemergence into society would be a most difficult step. We of DAWN today feel a concerted effort must be made to aid these young people. There is more to life than mere adjustment to social requirements, whether in study, in vocation, or with peers. Too long, mental health has been construed as the absence of pathological symptoms. We need to recognize that each youth has the potential to become a self-actualized adult.

At DAWN we are attempting to provide a meaningful supplement to the school experience an alternative both to the drug scene and to the more traditionally established social organizations. We see this as a proving ground for a program which could be adapted within the framework of the, thus far, unresponsive, large formal institutions.

Perhaps the clearest way to relate the spontaneous beginning of this nonprofit, student initiated community service effort is to quote the informal remarks of Jordan Paul, co-founder in a discussion with the Beverly Hills Board of Education. Clearly, the genesis was the awareness and accessibility of two adults and the trust of a small group of young people.

"I think it is important (to discuss) how I almost lost the whole group of kids who formed the nucueus of DAWN. They were in one of my Health Education classes in the Spring of 1967 and they were making life miserable for me. I dreaded going to that class, and I reacted to their hostility with hostility of my own.

Everywhere I turned I received support for my hostile feelings and behavior. Administrators and teachers alike shrugged that these were without a doubt "bad kids" and all you could do with them was tolerate them until things got bad enough to send them to the Vice-Principal and then to another school. I looked up their cumulative records and they were filled with D's, F's and unsatisfactories. Yes, these were bad kids and my feelings and behavior were justified.

As the semester continued and things got worse, I became more desperate and was willing to try anything to improve the situation. One day, while complaining to Caldwell about the class we began to explore another, as yet untried approach. Instead of reacting to their overt behavior perhaps I could take enough of an interest to get involved with the kids to find out what they were really saying and feeling. The big change occurred with the realization that maybe if I took an interest in them, something would start to happen. And, that is when it started to happen.

It's very difficult to come up with any one reason that people turn to drugs. We feel very strongly that the more we've been involved with people-all kinds of people that they get involved in self-destructive behavior of all kinds because there is something lacking within themselves. They have self images that say, I'm not very good. They go out and prove it, whether they use drugs, use alcohol, marry people who beat them mentally or physically, suffer with a job which they don't like, etc. This is a self-destructive pattern which we think can be helped.

We feel the self-destructive pattern can be changed if first a person can get to the point where he can admit those hard to verbalize feelings such as, 'I'm scared,' 'I'm weak,' 'I don't like myself,' etc. As he learns to work through his feelings he can become a person whom he can accept and respect. A person who likes himself just doesn't get involved in situations which degrade himself.

That is the appeal of the type of program that we are doing at DAWN. Although our orientation is toward the drug using population, we believe that what we do is valid for any personality in trouble. We have proven this by the more than 100 young people with whom we have worked, some of whom were not drug users. Some of our non-drug users included a Student Body President, some National Merit Scholarship winners, four point grade average scholars, some who have gone on to Harvard, Stanford, UC and all of whom were looked up to as pretty healthy guys. We took them in because they came and said, 'I'm unhappy and I want help.' When we dealt with their feelings and problems, we got down to the same basic core that we had dealt with in the drug user-poor self-image, an inability to relate meaningfully to people and a desire to relate not only to their own peer group but to adults as well.

A lot of it is a desire to relate to an adult, which is basic to their feelings of wanting to relate to their parents. An interesting thing has happened at DAWN in that as the kids gained a better understanding of their own behavior and as they learned to relate to others—their own peer group and to their counselors they then started to develop better relationships with their parents. Most of all, we are trying to bring about improvements in the total environment, including the home. Many families have called on our counselors to assist them in breaking through to honest communication and to more meaningful relationships."

PHILOSOPHY OF GROUP PROCESS

The philosophy of DAWN is rather simple and straight forward:

The basic emotional needs of humans are two in number: (1) love; (2) self esteem.

Where either is unfulfilled in the life of an individual that individual suffers and reacts or compensates for the pain through unhealthy, unnatural behavior. Where either is missing is the result of learning to squelch or failure to develop the natural human propensity for caring, giving and moving close to other humans.

Each individual desires to be a more honest, spontaneous person in his relationships with others. And the pain can be overcome and the individual can learn to function creatively in his environment.

There are many directions to move toward change. That group process offers the best vehicle for facilitating rapid change in adolescents is widely acknowledged by experts in the medical and behavioral professions.

PROGRAM

Teenage members of DAWN meet in small groups of 10-12 in a leased five room office building in West Los Angeles. A trained counselor leads the twice a week, three-hour sessions. What happens in these group sessions is easy to understand.

A facilitator can develop, in an intensive group situation a psychological climate of safety in which freedom of expression and reduction of facades can

occur.

In such a climate of safety many of the immediate feeling reactions of each member toward himself and of members toward each other tend to be expressed. A climate of mutual trust tends to develop out of this mutual freedom to express real feelings-negative and positive. Each member moves toward greater acceptance of his total being-emotional, intellectual and physical.

A small group, even of strangers, can develop a trust in each other such that each can feel free to tell the other what he really feels. Out of that situation begins to come the realization that, "you might begin to accept me as I am, with all my deficiencies, and I might accept you with all your oddities. Maybe I like you better as you are than when you're putting up your fronts."

With individuals less inhibited by facades and defenses, the possibilities of change in personal attitudes and behavior becomes less threatening-even desirable.

We tend to keep on the behavior patterns we have always followed because it is pretty threatening to change them. Less threatening small groups can open

doors to innovation and change. With a reduction of defensiveness, people begin to hear each other, and so, can learn from each other to a greater extent.

The intensive group permits the development of feedback-one to anothersuch that each individual learns how he appears to others and the impact he has in interpersonal relationships. "How do others really see me?"

With this new greater freedom and greater communication, new ideas and new concepts emerge and innovation and change both become desirable.

These learnings in the group experience tend to carry over into relationships outside the intensive experience.

ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE

The non-profit corporation was established in July, 1967, and Internal Revenue Service approved tax deductible status the same year.

Physical facilities consist of a leased five room office building of 2500 square feet at 11785 West Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. This location is well located within the community in which the majority of the participants reside. Three of the rooms are set up for group counseling. One room is for general recreation and assembly and the third for office, administrative and conference. Group process is conducted two evenings per week, each session of three hours duration. This is the format with which the success of DAWN has been achieved. An applicant presents himself to a panel of three or four peers with a counselor present, at which time he is told of the DAWN program and objectives. The panel seeks to determine, subjectively, the sincerity of the applicant. He is told he must seek involvement through 1) committing himself to non-drug use and 2) attending all group sessions. A mutual affirmative decision results in assignment to a six hour per week group. His participation continues until one of the three eventualities: 1) He may choose to discontinue, 2) He and his counselor may decide he no longer needs such intensive group experience or, 3) He may be given the option of participating at whatever level he desires.

Alternative levels of involvement evolved after DAWN had grown for a year. Some youth went away to college but substantially numbers who are now functioning as healthy individuals feel a strong identification with what is being accomplished. It is they who have made DAWN. They want to continue, in some way, to be a part of DAWN's growth. The options they now have are 1) once a week group experience; 2) participation as speakers who aid and educate others; 3) service as co-facilators to conselors or as "big brothers" to new members; 4) planning activities; or 5) participation in encounter groups which work with groups of parents of DAWN participants and which seek to improve understanding between races, economic and social classes through close group experiences.

Three of the four counselors work with six-hour groups. The fourth counselor leads the once-per-week group of more actualized youth and coordinates activities and outside encounters. She serves further as co-leader of the parent-teen group. The parent-teen group is another innovation at DAWN. It consists of six parents of DAWN participants and six DAWN youth (not matched with their own parents) who have the aforementioned option of involvement level. Each in the group commits himself to six weekly sessions.

Activities consist of cultural and recreational experiences organized on a group basis but followed up by many individual pairings and small groups as the young people become close friends. Theatre parties, picnics, museum exhibits, art and music are most often pursued. All members of DAWN, including counselors' families, join in these activities.

Encounters with outside groups, service clubs, churches, schools and individuals have been increasingly undertaken. A partial list of such appearances is contained elsewhere in this document. The young people with the above participation options comprise these encounter groups.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Perhaps the best way to describe the population is in terms of material gathered from a questionnaire filled out by members of DAWN. The questionnaire was drawn up in early summer as part of our attempt to create a facility more amenable to research. (Our attitude toward research is discussed elsewhere in this report.) It was an attempt to provide information relevant to describing our population and assessing self-reported progress in areas of decreasing drug use, development of interpersonal relationships, attitudes toward one's self, one's

family and toward DAWN. This data is not completed (N-61) as some of our original population have not yet been contacted. And as the data on 10-20 others, who have joined DAWN since the questionnaire analysis began, is not included. Our members range in age from 16-191⁄2 years old. All have been involved with drugs to some extent. Our population manifests a wide variety of patterns of drug use. These range all the way from serious addiction to amphetamines or barbiturates, through frequent use of various other dangerous drugs down to very tentative experimentation with marihuana. A few have used heroin, but this is the exception rather than the rule. A few have also come to us after being under constant pressure, from friends, to use drugs. Because we are trying to prevent drug use we accept these youngsters when space is available. They account for approximately 5% of our total population.

Preliminary analysis of this data indicates that the population has not changed dramatically from those we were originally working with. The possible exceptions are in the indicators of degree of disturbance-previous arrests, psychiatric hospitalizations and suicide attempts. New members seem to represent a more defiant group than was originally involved. This holds true for degree of drug involvement as well.

Such a trend might be explained in several ways. The opportunity for young people to be exposed to dangerous drugs has increased. We have found it necessary to turn away the more stable youngsters in order to provide openings for those who are in greater need. There has also been a growing acceptance by West Los Angeles teenage drug users that DAWN is a "groovy place to go to put down", a place where "you can be accepted for what you really are and really feel".

RESEARCH

ATTITUDE

DAWN was started to help young people cope with their environment. It is primarily a clinical setting and will, indeed must, remain such. It is our feeling that any research which might interfere with our effective functioning by drastically changing our setting, methods or goals, or by depersonalizing our involvement would be self-defeating. On the other hand, we strongly believe that nonobtrusive research aimed at a variety of questions could be beneficially utilized by our staff as well as by others interested in working with adolescents and groups.

PRELIMINARY RESEARCH

The questionnaire referred to above is an attempt to define the population of DAWN. In addition, it provides us with a brief case history of each new member and establishes a means of record keeping which will be necessary for outcome research and the meaningful collection of follow-up data. Preliminary analysis of this questionnaire indicates that the program has been very successful to date. It is difficult to analyze the data fully because the questionnaire was not given to all members at a comparable point in the program. We intend to continue collecting this data and hope to publish our findings during 1969.

We are also administering the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to all of our participants. This gives us further data on each member. Through the combined information from the questionnaire and MMPI we may be able to find indicators of success vs. failure in our program.

The MMPI data is also being used in cooperation with the Youth Drug Study Unit at Langly Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San Francisco. Our population provides a comparison group of non-hospitalized drug users. Through our combined efforts we hope to better understand the personality dynamics of todays "alienated adolescent".

RESEARCH INTERESTS

In addition to the continuous evaluation of our work with young people, we would like to systematically assess DAWN's effect on the West Los Angeles community. We have participated in numerous social action programs that are interested in our impact on other groups as well as on community attitude change. Beyond description and evaluative research, the staff is very interested in group process. For example, we would like to explore the use of video-tape feedback in a group. Most adolescents are struggling with their identity and selfimage. The use of video-tape is a promising adjunct to group counseling.

With video-tapes we could also study communication patterns, amount of counselor involvement, amount and type of member involvement, individual and group movement toward goals, etc. The possibilities for process research are obviously numerous and as we expand our staff, we intend to move in this direction.

COMMENTS

We recognize that there is a self-selection of participants occurring which tends to give DAWN relatively good prospects for attaining success with those who continue beyond a few meetings. Such a self-selection is present in every counseling agency and does not detract from the fact that DAWN is filling a gap in the community. Teenagers who want help, and can benefit from help, are not able to secure it on their own initiative. This is crucial to effective work with adolescents.

DAWN has also reached many people who are not suitable for its program and has served as a referral agency for adolescents and panicked parents in the West Los Angeles community. Previously, many of the local drug users were sent to private therapist where the results were not satisfying to either the young people or to their parents.

Through the work at DAWN the entire community seems to be benefiting. A seasonable dialogue about drug taking behavior by teenagers has been established-a dialogue not centering on the pharmacological dangers of drugs (which almost every drug taker already knows). DAWN has centered its attention not only on the sensationalism created by the mention of drugs, but on the more pervasive problem of communication. DAWN focuses primarily on the adolescent, but has not ignored his life-space which included school and family. DAWN works principally through group process, but is flexible enough to incorporate any means necessary to maximally benefit the individual member. DAWN developed out of the trust of a small group of teenagers, has grown without losing that trust, and will hopefully continue to grow with that essential element still existing.

We feel that the success of DAWN has not been a matter of chance, but rather the result of a combination of fortuitous circumstances and eventualities and a lot of hard work. We also feel that DAWN-type programs can develop in other areas and in other school districts. What has been learned at DAWN can help other groups. The staff is attempting to facilitate movement toward schoolwide programs beginning in elementary school.

Among the things being done is the eliciting of support from politicians and community leaders. Such support will make it easier for people in other schools to begin dynamic programs without being hampered or discouraged by their administrators.

In helping other programs start it is essential to begin at the bottom, with the students, NOT at the top with the program. There are teachers and staff at every school who are trusted by a large cross-section of the student body. In many cases these people are willing and eager to help the students. It is essential to find these people, through the students, and give them suggestions and encouragement in some directions in which to move. Since an essential element in this type of program is flexibility, a set procedure or method cannot be insisted upon. The individuals involved must be supported in reaching their own best program.

It is obvious that the ratifications of the DAWN program for dealing with adolescent problems are far reaching. There are numerous possibilities for variations on this program. Eventually some of these may be incorporated into the normal school curriculum.