Youth Empowerment: The ICEP Perspective

The InnerCity Empowerment Project, also known as Innercept (ICEP), is a new program that aims to offer both an adolescent and young adult academic environment. Innercept (ICEP) aims to focus on enhancing the life skills of at-risk youth in its co-ed, on-site educational programs. The program plans to accept no more than eight students at a time, and each will be encouraged to experience community building with their peers while balancing school, work and relationships. The goal is to “encourage a balance between physical health and fitness, environment, relationships, self-esteem and values while focusing on the individual needs, strengths and deficits of each student.”Accordingly the strengths of Innercept (ICEP) will be: A comprehensive psychiatric and therapeutic coordination of individual/family needs; groups led by “highly specialized and experienced clinicians” in the areas of psychotherapy, medical/mental health, nutrition, health and fitness, education, leisure, relationships and goals; educational specialists design tailored educational plans to facilitate learning styles and transcript building; a licensed clinical school psychologist; a holistic approach to build support and provide a balanced developmental progress; and weekly updates with program specialists and family.The ICEP Young Adult Program will offer the following: A college type of living arrangement with peers, roommates and authority figures; GED services and/or college courses through a local community college; skill building which includes money management; medication management, individual/family/group therapy; supervised health and fitness program; nutritional mentoring by registered dietitian; and daily groups dealing with schedule maintenance, decision making, leisure and responsibility.