University of Alabama Project PROTECT for Girls

The University of Alabama, in partnership with the Alabama Department of Youth Services (DYS) which oversees the Working on Womanhood Program (WOW) at the Girls Intensive Education and Treatment Facility in Tuscaloosa, Alabama propose to focus on educational protective factors. The three year project will provide explicit and individualized reading comprehension and writing strategy instruction for 108 girls ages 12-18 using the evidence-based self-regulated strategy development approach (U.S. Department of Education). The objective is to improve the academic, self-determination, and behavioral protective factors of girls in a secure juvenile justice setting through reading/writing with integrated self-determination strategy instruction and with intensifications, if needed; to increase girl voice through reinforcement of their self-determination skills; and to provide facility staff with instruction protocols for sustained use.