This is the most current description page for APC.Action for Personal Choice (APC) is a structured, flexible, readiness program developed by Chester S. Galle. Originally designed for adults, APC is also effective with young people.

In APC, learners gain the social and behavioral skills needed to participate fully in education and training courses, make informed life decisions, secure and retain employment, and build healthy personal and professional relationships.

Action for Personal Choice is intense. Classes meet 5 days a week 6 hours a day, for three or four consecutive weeks. They are facilitated rather than taught, with emphasis on process over content. Class size is typically 8 to 12 students. The intake procedure includes individual interviews with the APC facilitator. Following APC, students move into appropriate work or study programs.

In APC class, students participate actively in a process which leads from Awareness, to Understanding to Acceptance, to Change. Interactive exercises and a Discovery Journal allow them to focus on their thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviors. As one student put it APC is "an intensive course to find out who you really are and how to change your ways for the better."

The curriculum, which is set forth in the Action for Personal Choice facilitator's Manual, is designed to be continually responsive to the particular needs of the group. Provision is made for presentations by outside experts on addictions, compulsions, and family systems, with optional units on family violence and sexual abuse. The class provides a confidential, supportive atmosphere in which students can share previously unaddressed issues and concerns.

In Action for Personal Choice, students learn to overcome barriers in their lives and to take responsibility for their own thinking and behavior. They realize, often for the first time, that they can choose the kind of life they want for themselves and achieve that life by setting and working toward realistic goals. As a result of Action for Personal Choice, learners can move from dependence to independence, from self-doubt to self-confidence, from a negative to a positive way of life.

© c.2000 Galle