FACILITATOR

Ericka McClam, Family Program - facilitator
Principal Investigator, DeKalb County Child Advocacy Center (former Probation Officer)

• What inspired you to become a facilitator?
  Seeing the needs of the people in the community, hoping that I can educate them about resiliency, especially bonding their families back together again after a crisis situation has occurred.
• What kind of atmosphere do you try to create?
  I try to create a realistic atmosphere for the families and make them feel comfortable; not that they will have judgment placed upon them. This helps them feel more free to discuss family issues and find resolutions to their problems.
• How do the teenagers respond to this?
  They are initially reserved but eventually, after the tone is set they are more comfortable, becoming very open and almost relieved to discuss the problems they are having with authority figures, their parents, their peers and themselves.
• What changes do you see in the teenagers as they move through the sessions?
  I see them becoming less guarded, becoming inquisitive about what is presented at the sessions to the point where they sometimes go out independently and gather information in addition to what we talk about in the SUPER or SUPER Stop sessions themselves – e.g. number of alcohol related deaths in their school.