Programme Details
Ages: 12-16
Sessions: 13
Session Time: 90 minutes
Quick Links
Rays of Light is a thirteen-week biblical peer support programme based on the story of David. Its aim is to provide emotional and mental support and well-being for adolescents aged 12-16yrs who have been bereaved through death or family breakdown. The curriculum is ninety minutes long and addresses a different grief topic each week, involving both small and large group work. It is an interactive programme which includes games, drama, crafts, music, worksheets and simple cooking experiments. Most weeks include a look at a Psalm in the Bible that illustrates intense emotions and explores how it applies to them. Adult facilitators, trained by Growing Through, help young people process their emotions with support from their peers.
An adolescent is an emerging adult. Adolescence, alone, is a difficult stage in a person’s life. During this time the adolescent is changing physically, sexually, socially, spiritually and academically. They are also beginning to develop a sense of personal identity and becoming independent from family. This time of transition becomes almost unbearable when a loss in the family is added to the many changes already occurring in the young person’s life.
Normal problems associated with the teenage years become exacerbated. Unresolved grief can become chronic, causing a serious risk of psychological and emotional problems that block learning and inhibit human functioning. Rays of Light is an intervention at this crucial time of life. It prevents the young person from continuing on the downward slope of confusion, low self-esteem, unresolved anger, anxiety, depression and false guilt.
Aims of the Programme
To provide support and facilitate healing and acceptance of their loss
To assist in building a stronger self-esteem
To furnish young people with a new understanding of their family unit
Gain emotional control over fear and anger
Accept a new normal
Validate their feelings of loss
Intergrate their loss into their life experiences
Lesson Objectives
To help the young people to
be an active listening support
foster self-acceptance
portray that a person’s self-worth is based on who they are as a person uniquely created by God and not on what they do
learn strategies and coping skills for situations which are difficult
manage conflict peacefully
understand the need for personal boundaries
teach them what forgiveness is and what it is not and how to move towards it
understand the inter relationship between thinking, feeling, and behaving
help them understand that grief is a process
learn the importance of acknowledging and expressing their feelings
learn the necessity of accepting the reality of an unwelcome event and adjusting to difficult changes by seeing them as challenges
help them differentiate between real and false guilt
help young people explore the concept of trust and deal with emotions emanating from broken trust
direct young people towards a healthy resolution of the changes that have taken place in their lives
Topics
Displayed None
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
1 - My Identity
Purpose
To communicate that a person’s self-worth is based on who they are as a person uniquely created by God, and not on what they do.
2 - My Feelings
Purpose
To learn the importance of acknowledging feelings, expressing them, and moving towards a healthy acceptance of them. Feelings aren’t necessarily good or bad – they just are!
3 - Down Days
Purpose
To understand that grief is a process, a journey that moves towards acceptance and healing.
4 - Making the Transition
Purpose
To learn the necessity of accepting the reality of an unwelcome event, and adjusting to difficult changes by seeing them as challenges
5 - We are Family
Purpose
To allow group members to consider and describe the changing structure of their families and the role they have played in each scene.
6 - Constructive Anger
Purpose
To teach group members how to recognise the causes and symptoms of anger and how to deal with anger constructively.
Displayed None
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
7 - How to be Real without Hurting Others
Purpose
To teach group members how to uphold their personal boundaries through assertive, rather than passive or aggressive behaviour.
8 - Forgiveness
Purpose
To teach group members what forgiveness is and what it is not.
9 - Fear
Purpose
To teach that when we accept God’s forgiveness through Jesus’ death on the cross, we need not fear even death.
10 - The Storms will Pass
Purpose
To help the group members deal with new problems that come along, just when things seemed to be getting better.
11 - Trust
Purpose
To help the group members explore the concept of trust and deal with emotions emanating from broken trust.
12 - Letting Go of Guilt
Purpose
To differentiate between real and false guilt.
Displayed None
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
Looking to the Future
To bring closure to our time together and to look forward to the future.
Displayed None
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.
1 - My Identity
Purpose
To communicate that a person’s self-worth is based on who they are as a person uniquely created by God, and not on what they do.
2 - My Feelings
Purpose
To learn the importance of acknowledging feelings, expressing them, and moving towards a healthy acceptance of them. Feelings aren’t necessarily good or bad – they just are!
3 - Down Days
Purpose
To understand that grief is a process, a journey that moves towards acceptance and healing.
4 - Making the Transition
Purpose
To learn the necessity of accepting the reality of an unwelcome event, and adjusting to difficult changes by seeing them as challenges
5 - We are Family
Purpose
To allow group members to consider and describe the changing structure of their families and the role they have played in each scene.
6 - Constructive Anger
Purpose
To teach group members how to recognise the causes and symptoms of anger and how to deal with anger constructively.
7 - How to be Real without Hurting Others
Purpose
To teach group members how to uphold their personal boundaries through assertive, rather than passive or aggressive behaviour.
8 - Forgiveness
Purpose
To teach group members what forgiveness is and what it is not.
9 - Fear
Purpose
To teach that when we accept God’s forgiveness through Jesus’ death on the cross, we need not fear even death.
10 - The Storms will Pass
Purpose
To help the group members deal with new problems that come along, just when things seemed to be getting better.
11 - Trust
Purpose
To help the group members explore the concept of trust and deal with emotions emanating from broken trust.
12 - Letting Go of Guilt
Purpose
To differentiate between real and false guilt.
13 - Looking to the Future
Purpose
To bring closure to our time together and to look forward to the future.