The EQUIP Program: Teaching Youth to Think and Act Responsibly Through a Peer - Helping Approach

A three-part intervention method for working with antisocial or behavior disordered adolescents. The approach includes training in moral judgment, anger management/correction of thinking errors, and prosocial skills. Youth involved in the EQUIP training program participate in two types of group sessions - Equipment Meetings (in which the leader teaches specific skills) and Mutual Help Meetings (in which the leader coaches students as they use the skills they've learned to help each other). The EQUIP program received the 1998 Reclaiming Children and Youth Spotlight on Excellence Award. In addition to being widely used in the U.S., EQUIP has been adapted for use in Canada, the Netherlands, and several other countries.

Program Evaluation
In an evaluation of the program, 57 boys between the ages of 15 and 18 who were recently committed to a juvenile corrections facility were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 1) The experimental EQUIP treatment group, 2) the motivational control group, or 3) the simple control group. Results indicated that participants in the EQUIP group experienced significant decreases in self- and staff-reported institutional misconduct as well as gains in social skills, whereas participants in either control group did not. There were no differences between groups in regards to changes in moral judgment.Leeman, L.W., Gibbs, J.C., & Fuller, D. (1993). Evaluation of a multi-component group treatment program for juvenile delinquents. Aggressive Behavior, 19, 281-292.UpdatesSince its introduction in the early 1990s, the EQUIP Program has been adapted and implemented at various facilities and institutions in North America, Europe, and Australia. The institutions include juvenile correctional facilities, community-based adult correctional facilities, halfway houses, re-entry programs, and middle schools. The young persons served have ranged in age from preadolescence through adulthood.One example is the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing, which provides treatment, education, and transition services for chronic male juvenile offenders. After implementing and adapting EQUIP, Red Wing saw its recidivism rate drop by better than half (from 53% to 21%; see Gibbs, Potter, DiBiase and Devlin, in press).Book Reviews""For the first time, 'what we know' and 'what we know works' have been distilled into a highly readable, scientifically proven intervention program for antisocial youth.""―Laurie Rice, Journal for Juvenile Justice and Detention Services""The EQUIP Program is a must read. . . Gibbs and colleagues provide the reader with a succinct but clear conceptual understanding of the causes of antisocial behavior, cognitive treatment strategies, and methods to empirically validate the effectiveness of interventions.""―John Lemmon, Juvenile Justice Update""The beauty of this book is its organization and practicality. . . The EQUIP Program is realistic and would be beneficial for teachers, principals, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and those interested in making a positive impact on youth.""―Carol A. Yeager, The Peer Facilitator Quarterly

Dr John C. Gibbs, PhD (Harvard University, 1972), is a professor of developmental psychology at The Ohio State University, USA. He has been a member of the State of Ohio Governor's Council on Juvenile Justice and is a faculty associate of The Ohio State University Criminal Justice Research Center. His work has focused on developmental theory, assessment of social cognition and moral judgment development, and interventions with conduct-disordered adolescents. A coauthor on the second edition of Aggression Replacement Training (Research Press, 1998), he is first author of The EQUIP Program (1995) and coauthor of The EQUIP Program Implementation Guide (2001). His other books include EQUIP for Educators (Research Press, 2005), Moral Development and Reality: Beyond the Theories of Kohlber, Hoffman, and Haidt (3rd ed.; Oxford University Press, in press) and Moral Maturity: Measuring the Development of Sociomoral Reflection (Erlbaum/Taylor & Francis, 1992).

Granville Bud Potter, M.Ed. (Bowling Green State University, 1975) is currently the executive director of the Franklin County (Ohio, USA) Community-Based Correction Facility. While serving in this capacity, he has successfully adapted the EQUIP program to serve adult offenders. Bud is also self- employed as a consultant to correctional and educational agencies. He retired from the Ohio Department of Youth Services in 1998 after 30 years working within institutions and parole divisions. As a consultant, he has worked with agencies in 21 of the United States and 2 states in Australia. He is the past president of the Ohio Correctional and Court Services Association. Much of his professional experience has involved the use of a peer-group modality.

Dr Arnold P. Goldstein, Ph.D. (1933-2002), was Professor of Psychology and Education at Syracuse University , USA as well as Founder and Director of the Syracuse University Center for Research on Aggression. He authored over 60 books and more than 100 articles on aggression, prosocial skills training, and juvenile delinquency. He also served as Director of the New York State Task Force on Juvenile Gangs. Dr. Goldstein received many prestigious awards including the Career Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association's Commitee on Children, Youth, and Families; and the Senior Scientist Award from APA's School Psychology Division.