RealVictory.org | About Us

Contact

For information about the RealVictory project, contact:

Bruce Bennett
Executive Director
296 S Main
Springville, Utah 84663
Phone: 801-358-4245
Email: bbennett@rapidsurvey.com

Leslie Kawai
Program Director
296 S Main
Springville, Utah 84663
Phone: 801-623-9590
Email: leslie@realvictory.org

Dr. Stephen Bahr
Professor of Sociology, BYU
2031 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602
Phone: 801-422-6710
Email: stephen_bahr@byu.edu

Dr. Bert Burraston
Professor of Sociology, BYU
2035 JFSB
Provo, UT 84602
Phone: 801-422-1692
Email: bert_burraston@byu.edu

Dr. David Cherrington
Professor of Organizational Behavior, BYU
780 TNRB
Provo, UT 84602
Phone: 801-422-6828
Email: david_cherrington@byu.edu

Staff & Board

RealVictory currently has three full-time staff members and 11 members of the board.

Of the board four represent Brigham Young University, two represent the University of Utah, and four represent State Agencies.

Click here to learn more about the Staff and Board.

About Us

RealVictory is a two-step program designed to reduce recidivism. First, probationers and parolees attend a six-session training course that teaches how to examine and change beliefs, behaviors and consequences. By the end of the course, participants use their newly mastered skills to set goals and create a plan for successful personal change.

Second, each participant is enrolled in a year-long phone coaching process that supports their personal change plan. Each person receives daily phone calls that follow up on their progress and support them as they change their lives. These calls are automated and timed according to the individual’s unique circumstances, and they include messages of encouragement and support from family and friends. When combined with the cognitive behavior training, the cell phone technology is the crucial component that enables people to break old habits and create new patterns of pro-social behaviors.

To date, 310 adult and juvenile probationers have participated in the study. Our primary focus is Utah and Salt Lake Counties. State and county correctional entities are pledging support to RealVictory and encouraging our research. As one parole director put it, “We wish every parolee could go through your program. RealVictory works.”

History

The RealVictory training model is an attitude change intervention centered on the idea that beliefs drive behavior (Robert Bennett, Gaining Control, 1987). The model was designed to help individuals examine their principles and beliefs more clearly, understand how their beliefs are driving their behaviors, and make certain that the results of their behavior are aligned with their basic needs.

A similar type of model was already being used successfully by Carl Reddick, an Oregon parole officer. Reddick designed a curriculum based on Robert Bennett’s change intervention principles and began to use his curriculum to train parolees. His experience indicated that parolees who had not responded to traditional therapeutic or treatment programs made substantial progress in their attempts to fundamentally change their own lives.

In 2005, Bruce Bennett, inventor of the Victory Seeker automated cell phone coaching program successfully used in drug recovery programs, and his cousin, Jim Bennett, trainer and co-author with Bruce of the RealVictory cognitive behavior training program also based on Robert Bennett’s change intervention principles, approached Dr. David Cherrington and Dr. Stephen Bahr at Brigham Young University about the possibility of combining their training methodology with the cell phone coaching technology in a pilot research program to treat probationers and parolees in Utah County.

Dr. Bahr and Dr. Cherrington saw the potential of the two programs and began a partnership with RealVictory to research whether the cognitive behavior program in combination with the cell phone coaching program could be an effective, and cost-effective, solution to the disturbingly high rates of recidivism and subsequent expenses on society associated with prison sentencing.

Under the direction of Dr. Stephen Bahr, Dr. David Cherrington, Dr. Bert Burraston, and Dr. Stephen Liddle, the BYU research team developed a Monthly Report Card measurement tool, designed to determine pro-social behaviors in adult and juvenile participants.

RealVictory, in partnership with BYU, contracted with the 4th District Juvenile Court to provide training and cell phone coaching to 50 juveniles in Utah County. RealVictory also simultaneously began adult participant training through Utah County Adult Probation and Parole. In 2006, researchers from the University of Utah joined the project.

To date, 310 adult and juvenile probationers have participated in the study. Our primary focus has been in the Utah and Salt Lake Counties. State and county correctional entities continue to pledge support to RealVictory and encourage our research. As one parole director put it, “We wish every parolee could go through your program. RealVictory works.”