It’s National School Counseling Week from Feb. 7-11, 2022! This is a time to focus public attention on school counselors everywhere from rural, urban and tribal communities. Through our partnership with Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, we provide free educational apps and resources to counselors in order to help students build new life skills.
Through our partnership with Strong Mind Strong Body Foundation, we provide free educational apps and resources to students in order to help them face decision-making in times of crises.
Many kids and teens may deal with sex abuse, teen partying, risky situations and domestic violence at home. Between 960,000 and 3,000,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported each year, while many other incidents go unreported.
It is estimated that more than ten million people experience domestic violence in the U.S. every year. There was a notable surge since the pandemic started. Hotlines lit up with abuse reports. What experts had predicted had happened. As we are now in the middle of winter in 2022, when many at-risk families are indoors, we are helping counselors and educators by providing them with apps and resources for two different age groups.
Available on Android and iOS
We have had counselors reach out to request our free Crossroads apps for both Android and iOS. Our apps feature anonymous CES-DC and CES-D scale data collection which counselors can evaluate online. Crossroads: Choices and Crossroads: Options. Counselors, educators and students can visit StrongMindStrongBody.org or click one of the links below for downloading our free apps. Crossroads: Choices is for users aged 9-13 and Crossroads: Options is for users aged 13-19. All Crossroads Games (Choices, Options, and New Decisions) run on iPhone (iOS) and Android devices.
Topics covered by game
Our apps and resources help counselors, educators and young people build awareness surrounding youth crisis awareness, financial literacy, risks surrounding the following topics per game:
Which game do you need?
Crossroads: Choices – for players age 9-13. Topics covered include risk of child sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence in the home, and creating a safety plan. Data from the CES-DC depression scale for children is collected and scored in the app.
- Safety at a house party
- Needles on the playground
- Domestic Violence
- Packing a safety bag
- Motivational Interviewing
- Assessment: Depression and ACES
Crossroads: New Decisions – for players age 13- 19. Topics covered include drinking/ drug use and driving, unsupervised parties, budgeting, communication, living with a guardian abusing alcohol and drugs and creating a safety plan. Data from the CES-D depression measure and the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale are collected and scored in the app.
- Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs
- Unsupervised teen parties
- Budgeting
- Safety plan
- Motivational interviewing
- Assessment: Depression and Adverse Childhood Events
Crossroads: Options – for players 13-19. Topics covered include drinking/ drug use and driving, dating partner violence, emotional abuse, living with a guardian abusing alcohol and drugs, finding a job, keeping a job and creating a safety plan. Data from measures of Generalized Anxiety and Locus of Control are collected and scored in the app.
- Dating Violence (Healthy and Dysfunctional Relationships)
- Avoiding Drug Use
- Finding a Job (Financial Literacy)
- Identifying unacceptable situations (Safety Plans)
- Positive Self-Talk (Healthy and Dysfunctional Relationships)
- Emotional Abuse
- Anxiety and Locus of Control (Assessment)
- Keeping a Job (Financial Literacy)
Do you have any activities or lessons that go with these apps?
Yes we do! Here is one of our contributed activities. Feel free to copy and use in your counseling, Family Life classes or any other program where youth need to learn about health decisions, support and resources.
Personal Support Network Activity
Hi, it’s me, Angie, here with some good advice. I was thinking today about all the people that answered my survey in Crossroads: Options about support. Thanks, you are the best! Also, I got an A in my class in college, so thanks again.
I was thinking about what people said about who they had to support them and I think maybe some people don’t realize how much support there could be for them out in the community.
Download this editable two-page handout here.
