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.

Updates

Since 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).