Peer Assistance & Leadership 

Course Description

Grade: 11-12

Credits: 1.0 

Prerequisite: Application Required

Course Code: 13030100

Course Number: H428

The Peer Assistance and Leadership® (PAL) program focuses on working with elementary, middle, and high school-age youth. Participants receive effective training in resiliency strategies. Course content and interactive activities combat issues like school violence, drug use/abuse, teen pregnancy, gang participation, school dropouts, and/or behavior problems. PAL® began in 1980 as a peer mentoring program, commonly referred to as “peer helping”, by combining peer assistance and peer leadership strategies originally developed in the 1970s. PAL® applies these basic prevention strategies by implementing the program as informal, extracurricular activities, or as structured, evidence/curriculum-based programs. The outcomes identified through the implementation of the PAL® program in a school setting are a reduction in substance use/abuse, an increase in academic performance, a reduction of absences/truancy, a reduction of discipline referrals to the school office, and an increase in positive decision-making skills and risk resiliency. Parents and school administrators note a favorable perception of the program's effectiveness.