Decision making
Slowing down the moment between a situation and a reaction, and looking at where each choice leads.
The Program
A program built for the room, not the brochure.
Level Up is facilitator-led, conversation-driven, and written down. Here is what it covers, what a session feels like, and where it runs.
The approach
Students do the thinking. We ask the questions.
A facilitator opens a real situation, and the room works it out. Students talk, disagree, write, and get asked to explain their reasoning out loud.
Level Up is not a motivational talk and it is not a discipline consequence. It sits somewhere more useful: a structured conversation about choices, with an adult who is willing to be direct and a workbook that makes students commit something to paper.
Some young people arrive because they signed up. Others arrive because a school, a program, or a court told them to. The design accounts for both.
What is included
- A facilitator-led program delivered on site
- Student workbooks and program materials
- Interactive discussion, reflection, and group activities
- Real-world scenarios, role-play, and problem solving
- A session plan built around your setting, group size, and time available
- A student feedback process so your team hears directly from the youth
What youth experience
The shape of a session.
Every group is different. The structure underneath stays the same.
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It starts honest
No speech about potential. The room gets set up so students know what this is, what it is not, and that they are allowed to be skeptical.
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Students do the talking
Questions go out, and answers come back. Students discuss, disagree, and work through situations that sound like their actual lives.
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It gets written down
Workbook pages give students somewhere private to think. Goals, choices, patterns, and plans go on paper in their own words.
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It gets challenged
Students are pushed to explain their reasoning. Accountability is direct, but nobody gets humiliated to make a point.
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They leave with something usable
Every session ends with something a young person can actually apply the next time a decision shows up.
Program areas
What students work on.
Sessions are built around the group in front of us. These are the areas Level Up addresses. We do not promise outcomes we cannot show.
Consequences
Tracing choices forward honestly, including the ones that feel small at the time.
Goal setting
Naming what you actually want, writing it down, and working backward to the first step.
Communication
Saying what you mean, hearing what someone else means, and handling conversations that get hard.
Healthy and unhealthy relationships
Recognizing what respect looks like, what pressure looks like, and the difference between them.
Positive self-talk
Noticing the way you speak to yourself and what that does to the choices you make next.
Anger management
Understanding what anger is telling you and what to do with it before it costs you something.
Problem solving
Breaking a real situation apart, weighing options, and picking a way forward.
Self-awareness
Getting honest about patterns, triggers, strengths, and blind spots.
Identity
Separating who you are from what has happened to you or what people expect of you.
Critical thinking
Asking better questions before accepting an answer, online or in person.
Recognizing negative behavior
Naming behavior clearly, in yourself and in the people around you, without shame.
Independence and interdependence
Learning to stand on your own and learning when asking for help is the stronger move.
Life preparation
Practicing the real-world situations that show up right after school ends.
Inside the workbook
The part they keep.
Every participant works in a Level Up workbook. Goals, choices, patterns, and plans go down in their own handwriting, which is very different from hearing an adult say them out loud.
Workbook section
Goal setting
Space to write down where you actually want to be, and what it takes to get there.
Workbook section
Decisions and consequences
Scenarios that ask students to follow a choice all the way through.
Workbook section
Relationships
Exercises on what respect, pressure, and loyalty look like day to day.
Workbook section
Self-talk and self-awareness
Prompts that get students honest about the voice in their own head.
Workbook section
Communication
Practice for conversations that usually go sideways.
Workbook section
Looking ahead
Ten years out, on paper, in their own handwriting.
The Level Up workbook is proprietary. We share a look at how it is built and what it covers, not the curriculum itself.
Delivery pathways
Where Level Up is built to run.
These are the settings the program is designed for. Open any pathway to see how it is adapted there.
Schools & Alternative Education Sessions and workshops that fit inside a school day, an advisory period, or a campus-wide initiative.
Level Up is built for middle and high school campuses, alternative education programs, credit recovery settings, and campus support teams. Sessions can run as a single workshop, a short series, or a longer program depending on your calendar.
ISS & DAEP Programming built for in-school suspension and disciplinary alternative education placements.
Students placed in ISS or DAEP are often the students most in need of an honest conversation and least likely to be handed one. Level Up is designed to work in those rooms: short enough to hold attention, direct enough to be taken seriously, and structured so students do the thinking instead of being talked at.
Juvenile Justice & Youth Intervention Sessions for probation programs, detention settings, diversion programs, and intervention services.
Level Up is designed for youth who are already involved with the justice system or at risk of becoming involved. The focus stays on decision making, consequences, accountability, and what comes next, without humiliation and without pretending the past did not happen.
Churches & Community Organizations Youth groups, after-school programs, summer programs, mentoring groups, and community centers.
Level Up programming is not faith-based content, and it works alongside whatever your organization already offers. It can run as a focused series for a specific group of young people.
Youth Workshops & Events Single-session workshops for conferences, summits, family events, and community days.
A workshop format works well when you want youth to leave with one clear takeaway and an experience that feels different from a keynote. Group size and length are set in advance with your team.
Facilitator Development Training and support for adults who work with youth and want to run better conversations.
Facilitator development focuses on how to hold an honest room: asking real questions, handling pushback, keeping accountability separate from shame, and knowing when to stop talking.
What we believe
The rules the program runs on.
Meet youth where they are
We start with the room in front of us, not the room we wish we had. That includes students who are angry, tired, or certain this will be a waste of time.
Respect their voices
Students are asked what they think and are allowed to disagree. A young person who pushes back is participating, not misbehaving.
Accountability without humiliation
We are direct about choices and consequences. We do not make an example out of anybody to get a reaction from the room.
Honest conversation over performance
No scripts to recite, no right answers to guess. The value is in students working something out for themselves.
The past is not the forecast
Circumstances and previous decisions explain where a young person is standing. They do not decide where the road ends.
Honest feedback, including the critical kind
We ask students what did not work and we publish those answers next to the good ones. That is how the program gets better.
What we need from you
- A room where students can talk without an audience
- A staff member present who knows the group
- A realistic time block, agreed in advance
- A heads-up about anything we should know before we walk in
What you can expect from us
- A facilitator who leads the room rather than reads to it
- Materials ready to go, nothing for your staff to prepare
- Respect for your rules, your schedule, and your students
- Student feedback shared back with your team, including the critical parts
Think this fits your students?
Tell us the setting, the group, and the time you have. We will tell you honestly whether Level Up is the right thing to bring in.
- Principals, counselors, and campus support teams
- ISS and DAEP coordinators
- Juvenile justice and youth intervention staff
- Church and community youth leaders
- Funders and sponsors who want to make it possible