Adolescent Life Coaching Center Mission & Overview

The Adolescent Life Coaching Center is a non-profit, community organization. Founded by Frances Boyde, the ALCC was created to help develop a Central Florida community in which every adolescent is heard, valued, nurtured, and loved and becomes productive, caring, contributing members of their communities.

It is the ALCC's aim to make both the parent and teen trust they are not alone through difficult times. At the ALCC there will always be someone to talk to and who is on call that will listen at times of anxiety or frustration, helping to refocus thoughts. Dealing with a defiant teen is exhausting. Because teens are more likely to comply with a request from someone they like versus someone they are not getting along with, our goal is to create a new form of communication that will prevent negative, unproductive battles. For teens that lack academic motivation, have school anxiety/phobia, and need additional help with school work, the ALCC provides academic and virtual school tutoring as part of a well rounded success plan.

ALCC Core Beliefs:

• There are no “bad” kids.
• We can not change the past.
• We can only control ourselves.
• You are the author of your own biography.
• Our thoughts create our emotions. We can control our thoughts, so therefore we can control our emotions.
• At ALCC, you will feel LOVED

Coaching Theory: The great majority of the participants of this program have a background of unsatisfactory experience with their first and most important group: the primary family. The groups offered at ALCC resemble a family in many ways.  The focus of coaching is not on blaming parents, siblings, friends or past events.  Coaching focuses on the “here and now” using reality and rational behavioral strategies which are widely used commonsense approaches. Reality theory emphasizes establishing rapport with participants and using problem solving. Rational theory emphasizes how our thoughts determine our emotions and behavior. The goal is to help teens develop a success identity, which involves the teen experiencing feelings of love and worth.  Success identity can only be measured in terms of how the participant views him/her self.  In contrast, adolescents with failure identity express their sense of failure by a) developing emotional and behavioral problems b) engaging rather extensively in delinquent or criminal activity or c) withdrawing.

Life Coaches: All programs are designed and initially implemented and established by Frances Boyde and Natalie Smith. Life coaches will be trained to utilize the philosophies of Adolescent Life Coaching Center; the life coach group facilitators are knowledgeable of techniques for building reflection, inquiry skills, and dialogue facilitation.

ALCC History & Founding Principles ~ "A Teacher's Mission"

It was Friday the 13, 2006. The morning bell rang at 9:20 as 26 students strolled into the class for home room. At 9:35 the door behind me opened as an assistant ran screaming in panic “don’t let him in he’s got a gun” - she quickly flattened her body against a wall in hiding. Sooner than we could have time to react to her entrance, the door opened once again. Chris Penley walked in slowly, gun in hand, aimed at my 26 kids. I remember first looking at his face and my perception was that Chris was not there. There was no anger in Chris’s movements or face. My perception was that Chris was in an altered state of consciousness controlled by hopelessness, pain, loneliness and sadness. He stayed for about one minute as he could see from the front window of my classroom where to go. The children’s panic and reaction to being close to (what we thought was) a gun would start manifesting itself within seconds after his exit.  My first words to my students as he stepped out calmly were “Chris is in so much pain that he has lost hope”.

Did Chris have a teacher, mentor, coach, or any accessible adult that he could talk to about anything?

I realized that I could present a solution in my community. The Adolescent Life Coaching Center was opened to offer a low cost community service that enhances the communication and relationship within the family. ALCC is a center where every teen can learn coping mechanisms before they choose their reaction, be supported while they learn new coping skills, and receive lifetime reinforcement as they become life coaches themselves. Parents are strongly encouraged to participate parenting groups and parent/teen communication enhancing activities. ALCC will help reestablish communication, develop a success identity, and provide family support through these tough adolescent years.

Did Chris have a teacher, mentor, coach, or any accessible adult that he could talk to about anything?

I realized that I could present a solution in my community. The Adolescent Life Coaching Center was opened to offer a low cost community service that enhances the communication and relationship within the family. ALCC is a center where every teen can learn coping mechanisms before they choose their reaction, be supported while they learn new coping skills, and receive lifetime reinforcement as they become life coaches themselves. Parents are strongly encouraged to participate parenting groups and parent/teen communication enhancing activities. ALCC will help reestablish communication, develop a success identity, and provide family support through these tough adolescent years.

The Adolescent Life Coaching Center is a project created in dedication to the memory of Chris Penley (1990-2006)
May all youth have a place to be heard, valued, nurtured, and loved.

Sincerely,                                                                                                                     

Frances Boyde M.Ed./Counseling
PHD Psychology Doctoral Candidate