Since its introduction a couple years ago, the Advent Corrective Thinking course has been successfully utilized across the US for low-level interventions in diversion programs, as well as for both intervention and sanction applications in probation/community corrections departments.
The Corrective Thinking curriculum also forms the basis for many of Advent’s Level II courses, combined with behavior-specific therapy for offenses such as alcohol/marijuana/substance abuse, anger and conflict, theft, and underage substance use.
Developed by Dr. Amy Smith of San Francisco State University, Corrective Thinking is an evidence-based program using cognitive-behavior principles focused on “Challenges, Choices, Change” to help offenders address antisocial thoughts and behaviors. Through information, exercises and real-time feedback, the course teaches offenders to think about how they think, how they live, how they interact with others, and how they can begin to make changes to address the challenges they face.
Customer Feedback
Based on feedback from Advent customers in probation and community corrections operations, Advent began developing a new course offering that maintained the “Challenges, Choices, Change” curriculum of Corrective Thinking, while also addressing other issues that our customers often face in managing successful offender probation requirements. Specifically, the new course is designed to address:
Education Attainment: offenders in the criminal justice system have often received less education than the general population, and their reading comprehension skills are often lagging. For this reason, the new course was written to a “remedial” level (6th grade) as opposed to the general population (8th grade) level.
Substance Use: many offenders struggle with low-level substance use and abuse issues. These issues affect their probation performance not only if drug screenings are part of probation, but also in their ability to make positive changes and fulfill probation requirements. For this reason, the new course includes curricula from Dr. Smith’s Alcohol and Substance Abuse treatment course.
Financial Literacy: probationers often have financial obligations tied to probation terms, including payment of fines and fees, restitution and other treatment-related expenses. As with education attainment in general, probationers often have little training in or knowledge of basic money management skills. The new course includes basic training in financial literacy concepts to help offenders better manage their money and court-ordered payment obligations.
Advent Life Skills Course
Coming later this year, the Advent Life Skills course will combine key components of the Corrective Thinking curriculum with additional therapy and training to address other issues often affecting successful probationer performance. The course will address:
Punishment and Deterrence
Positive Outlook and Self-worth
Healthy Living
Substance Use and Abuse
Financial Literacy
Communication and Conflict
Making Good Decisions
The course includes both required and optional text and video components and will take students four hours to complete at a sixth grade reading level or above. The course can be completed on most internet-enabled phones, computers or tablets, and browser and closed-captioning technologies allow for language translation and assistive technologies.
To Get Started
To learn more about Advent distance treatment programs and eLearning management platform, including demonstrations and reviews of our content, please email us today at info@adventfs.com or contact your AdventFS sales representative. For a complete catalog of online programs, visit www.adventelearning.com.
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