Helping Children Cope with Anger

Since The Salvation Army entered Regina in 1895 it has gained a reputation of feeding the hungry, clothing the less-fortunate and sheltering men, women and families. While helping the aforementioned remains a high priority for The Salvation Army, another priority is to lead our youth into a bright future free of harming themselves and others.

Did you know that in Regina, steps are being taken to achieve that goal?

For the second consecutive year The Salvation Army is offering an Anger Management program called “Red Cap”. Taking place at Coronation Park School in North Regina, this program provides 8 to 12 year old students anger management training. The goal is to have participants come to the point where they can manage their anger.

“Anger is a normal part of life and many children and adults do not have positive opportunities to practice dealing with their anger,” says Charity Putman, Red Cap Program Coordinator. “The Salvation Army is here to teach students how to manage their anger to avoid poor coping skills that can lead to vandalism, self-harm and violence.”

Red Cap lessons use the metaphor of a traffic light to encourage kids to “stop” (red), “think” (yellow) and “problem solve” (green) when facing stressful situations. By ingraining this process as an automatic response, students learn a valuable strategy for coping with anger. After the course, students receive a red baseball cap that reminds them to literally “put a cap” on their anger.

Red Cap runs for 8 to 10 weeks during the 60-minute lunch period.

While Coronation Park School is the only Regina school currently participating in the program, Putman says that Thomson School will be the newest addition next fall. There are hopes to expand to more schools in the coming years.

For more information on Red Cap, call Haven of Hope Community Ministries at (306) 757-4600.