The goals of Primary Project are to:

• Make a positive connection with a caring and supportive adult in the school setting.
• Help children get a positive start in school by fostering a healthy self-image.
• Develop and enhance social skills that promote positive social interactions.
• Improve a child’s school adjustment and performance.
• Identify any individual needs that can be supported in the school environment and then work with program supervisor who will coordinate with parents and teachers to determine if action is needed.

Referral process:

• Children can be referred to Primary Project by a classroom teacher or parent.
• The counseling team meets with teachers in October to discuss students in their classroom and their early adjustment to school.
• Students may be identified based on “life events” that may create an added level of stress for a child. Those events include but are not limited to:
  • Risk factors in the classroom/school
  • Difficulty or slower to develop friendships
  • Difficulty with sustained peer interactions
  • Difficulty joining groups
  • Little participation in class
  • Low interest/lack of excitement about school activities
  • Reluctance to attend school
  • Difficulty with academic skills
  • Awareness and/or self-expression that schoolwork is hard
  • Self-expression that academic work is easier for peers
  • Shy or withdrawn
  • Irritability
  • Child appears to be sad often
  • Life stressors
  • New school
  • New or change in peer group
  • Moving to a new home
  • Close relative or friend moving away
  • Change in family structure
  • Birth of a new sibling
  • Adoption of a child
  • New foster child entering the home
  • Illness of a family member (immediate or extended family)
  • Death of a family member (immediate of extended family)
  • Parent change in job or work expectations
  • Parent loss of employment
  • Financial changes for the family
  • Any other short-term crisis that might induce a higher level of stress on a parent, child, and/or family

About Primary Project:

• It is a child led and child directed play experience.
• It is proactive and preventive in nature.
• The play experience provides a very natural means of communication and expression of feelings for children.
• Child associates are trained to listen and respond to children’s communication through play.
• Associates use play and active listening as a primary means of interacting with the children.
• Child Associates are supervised by the CRPS counseling team. The child associates have weekly supervision with the counseling team.
• Communication about a child’s involvement in the program occurs between parents and a member of the counseling team.
• Communication occurs if there are themes, patterns or problematic areas that surface through the play sessions. Parents can also reach out to the counseling team for an update at any point. 

Primary Project is not:

• It is not therapy or play therapy!
• It is not a social skills group.
• It is not directive in its approach, so there are no expectations for child to share or talk about anything specific.
• There is no agenda or predetermined plan for the sessions.