Dancing at the Crossroads: A Guide for Caregivers in At-Risk Youth Programs

An anthology of traditional and original stories with commentary for using the stories to help troubled teens in need of character formation and re-formation. Also for use in general classrooms and youth activities to undergird healthy character formation in the pre-teen and teen years. Mentoring teens can be a wild dance. As adults we count and measure our movements but teens have created their own music and their own steps, they dance to the cycle of adolescent change in an effort to become one of us, though they would never admit that.

The books Dancing at the Crossroads: Stories for Mentoring At-Risk Youth, Practitioner’s Guidebook and Caregiver’s Guidebook are packed with the lessons of fifteen years in the field working with at-risk populations in runaway shelters, group homes, residential treatment facilities and one-on one with youth and parents. Out of a real understanding of these young people and their needs, and a passion for helping guide them into the adult circle, Lorna MacDonald Czarnota has compiled a collection of time-tested stories with activities, advice and information for parents and families, and a series of programs that storytellers, mental health workers, counselors, therapists, and others can utilize with groups of their own.