Benefits of Group Work

Human beings are hardwired to search for community, which we typically first encounter with our immediate family. However, upon reaching adolescence, young people begin individuating from their primary caregivers in order to form their own sense of self-identity. 

Students going through this phase tend to focus much more on their immediate peers. Teenagers preoccupy themselves with what their friends think because they are trying to figure out who they are outside of their family home. 

The main benefits of working in a group setting include:

Peer Reinforcement

• For better or worse, young people derive much of their sense of value and worth from what their peers think and do. Our program capitalizes on this by using encouragement and approval from their classmates to cement lessons far deeper than a test or quiz would. 

Safety and Support

• Many of the students our program targets come from a place where they don’t have a good support system. A group is a safe place to feel vulnerable and process trauma that many young people would not have access to otherwise. 

Installation of Hope

• When students see members of their group changing and growing, they believe they can do it too. This is very powerful as many of our students lack models for positive behavioral change, especially ones their own age.

Group work is even more critical during the return to class from remote learning due to Covid. Isolation and separation were “the new normal” and, as we’re integrating back into a world of constant socialization, it’s important to teach young people how to have in-person interactions again. The B.R.I.D.G.E. provides a much needed space for students to develop and expand their ability to connect with others.