A distinguished public-policy and educational-technology consultant based in Indiana, Thomas Stoughton served as the president of Business Consulting Incorporated for 10 years. Aside from running a successful consulting business, Thomas Stoughton established the Heartland International Film Festival, an annual event held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Heartland Film regularly recognizes studio-released films that make a social contribution beyond entertainment with the Truly Moving Picture Award. Meant to convey the special meaning of these movies to potential audiences, the award program determines recipients through a judges panel that evaluate artistic and technical quality. Recently, Heartland Film presented the Truly Moving Picture Award to Little Woods. Set in a North Dakota-based town of the same name, the film is a moving thriller about two sisters against extreme circumstances beyond their control and the decisions they face. Directed by award-winning director Nia DaCosta, Little Woods opened in theaters on April 19, 2019.
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An accomplished technology and business management consultant based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Thomas Stoughton formerly served as the president of Business Consulting Incorporated. Also an experienced education consultant, Thomas Stoughton is responsible for establishing the Indiana Virtual School in 2011.
A public, statewide charter school, the Indiana Virtual School is an educational outreach program that serves children whose potential has been neglected by traditional public schools. The Virtual School brings an enriching educational experience to children who have unique skills and abilities, as well as those whose medical needs or religious beliefs have kept them from full participation in a traditional educational environment. Funded by Mr. Stoughton out of his personal money, 121 students enrolled in the online charter school for the 2012-13 academic year. By the 2018-19 school year, the school’s enrollment had grown to more than 7,000 virtual students from all 92 counties. In addition to being the state’s largest virtual school, it ranks as one of the largest high schools in the state. Aside from educational programs, it coordinates with the Department of Child Services and statewide sheriff’s departments to promote student well-being in underserved areas. An accomplished management and technology consultant based in Indiana, Thomas Stoughton is the former president of Business Consulting Incorporated. In addition to his career spent advising businesses and government agencies, Thomas Stoughton has donated to Progress House in Indianapolis, Indiana, in support of its long-term residential addiction-recovery programs.
Studies show that shorter residential programs have a low effectiveness rate. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, people with a substance addiction with a medium to high risk of experiencing withdrawal are not appropriately served by short-term programs of only a few weeks’ duration. The National Institute on Drug Abuse recommends a minimum of 90 days for inpatient addiction treatment, with longer stays correlating with better outcomes. Progress House offers a three-phase program, with the first lasting 90-120 days. After Phase 1, Progress House residents can continue their assisted recovery at the inpatient facility for one year before transitioning to semi-independent apartment living to continue receiving support for another year. For more than three decades, Thomas Stoughton has been promoting education, addiction recovery, and violence prevention in Indiana. Over the years, Thomas Stoughton has been responsible for producing the documentary film Virus of Violence and establishing both the Center for Successful Parenting and Indiana Virtual School (INVS). An online public charter school, INVS provides education to Indiana students for free. It’s the only public charter school in the state that uses the Pearson and Florida Virtual curriculum, which has won the Codie award and been around for more than a decade. Below are several frequently asked questions about INVS’ courses: Question: How long are the courses? Answer: Typically, the classes offered by the school last about 16 to 18 weeks. These classes are available year-round, and students may begin most courses on a rolling basis to accommodate their schedule. Q: Are there honors courses? A: Yes, most of the school’s courses are offered for regular or honors credit. To switch to honors credit, students register for the regular course and inform their teacher that they want to earn honors credit for the course. Question: What do courses cost? Answer: Indiana residents are allowed to enroll in INVS at no cost. However, they must enroll on a full-time basis. Nonresidents of Indiana are also allowed to enroll in many individual courses, but they must pay tuition. Q: Are courses accredited? A: INVS is a public school with courses suitable for middle and high school students. These courses are all available entirely online, and the school is accredited by the Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Furthermore, courses satisfy Indiana Academic Standards requirements. An experienced Indiana business and nonprofit consultant, Thomas Stoughton has engaged with numerous clients to achieve solutions that have brought about lasting social change. Among Thomas Stoughton’s areas of focus is supporting addiction recovery as the chairman of the board of Progress House in Indiana.
In February 2019, the Daily Journal highlighted Indiana State Senator Jim Merritt’s introduction of Senate Bill 33, which would enable the establishment of nine Comprehensive Addiction Recovery Centers statewide. The current situation is one in which only 16 percent of existing clinic providers offer more than a single medication to patients undergoing substance-use disorder treatment. In addition to not offering both naltrexone and buprenorphine opioid-addiction medication options, a number of centers lack the kinds of behavioral remedies that significantly boost positive outcomes. The proposed network is based on a federal model that emphasizes personalized treatment and community collaboration in providing a comprehensive range of programmatic services. Along with access to Federal Drug Administration-approved medications, these include counseling, detoxification, and relapse prevention. The former president of Business Consulting Incorporated, Thomas Stoughton is a distinguished business consultant who resides in Indiana. Throughout his career, he has advised a variety of private businesses and government agencies. Committed to helping his community, Thomas Stoughton supports addiction-recovery programs such as Progress House in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he serves as chairman of the board. Structured differently from a traditional halfway house, Progress House offers a structured program and environment for people who are motivated to turn their lives around and make healthier choices. While following the 12-step addiction-recovery program, participants engage in daily prayer and meditation, workshops, and intensive case management led by a recovery mentor and a certified peer recovery coach. The program also includes at least five 12-step meetings per week and individual and group therapy with licensed clinical addictions counselors. On weekends, residents of Progress House enjoy recreational activities like paintball, hiking, bowling, and going to museums and sporting events. To support recovering addicts’ continued sobriety, Progress House offers a transitional-living program called Next Step. A sober living apartment complex, Next Step is open to men who have completed six months of sobriety at the Progress House’s main residence. The two- or four-man units help recovering addicts learn to become independent again while still drawing on the structure and support of the Progress House program. A longtime Indiana organizational consultant, Thomas Stoughton has been instrumental in a number of statewide initiatives, including the creation of a virtual charter school that met the needs of diverse students. Thomas Stoughton also served on the board of the Center for Successful Parenting in Indiana, which has a mission of disseminating research on the impact of media violence on America’s youth.
A Psychiatric Times article on the topic brought focus to the distorted reality engendered by contemporary media, with increasingly graphic portrayals of violence making people feel that crime is surrounding them and that they need protection. In the case of individuals with mental health challenges, violent video game addiction may be an underpinning factor in reinforcing fears and engendering rage. As an American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement describes it, media violence has been shown to contribute to desensitization to violence and aggressive behavior. This statement is backed up by research such as a study from Iowa State University’s Center for the Study of Violence tracking brain functioning changes that occur with significant exposure to violent, fast-paced video games. The common finding across studies of high-risk juvenile offenders worldwide was that violent antisocial behavior and psychopathy were strongly correlated with exposure to such games. Thomas Stoughton has more than three decades of experience in business consulting and leading numerous nonprofit projects in the education sector. Dedicated to improving safety and anti-violence initiatives in schools, Thomas Stoughton played a role in the development of the Indiana Department of Education’s Indiana School Safety Specialist Academy, now called the School Building Physical Security and Safety program.
The program increases safety protocols for educational institutions throughout the state by providing educators and faculty with ongoing, certified training in addition to resources for school security, emergency preparedness, and intervention and prevention planning. Participants learn from a team of school-safety specialists, who also assist in the development and implementation of these strategies. Moreover, the program outlines best practices to create safe educational environments. There are three levels of training: basic, advanced, and regional. In order to attend the advanced and regional sessions, participants must first complete basic training. The multi-day courses begin every fall with two days of instruction in Indianapolis in addition to an online component with materials and assignments that must be finished before the final day of training in the following spring. For more information about the School Building Physical Security and Safety program and training levels, visit www.doe.in.gov/safety. Indiana business consultant Thomas Stoughton has contributed to the development of several educational safety initiatives throughout his career, including the Indiana Virtual School. Outside his professional and charitable pursuits, Thomas Stoughton maintains an interest in efforts for addiction recovery assistance. The complexity of addiction means that treatment effectiveness can vary widely from person to person, meaning that each person needs an individually tailored strategy. That said, most professionals and researchers agree that recovery typically involves five primary stages: - Precontemplation. Most people at this stage are disinterested in seeking treatment and not particularly receptive to change. Their contact with recovery professionals is likely the result of pressure from someone in their lives or legal troubles. Attempts to rationalize substance use and feelings of hopelessness are also common. - Contemplation. This is the point where a person with an addiction acknowledges the disease and its consequences. Treatment professionals contend that admitting there is a problem is the first step to recovery, making this an essential part of seeking help. Although people at this stage might start planning for change, many spend months in this stage before taking action. - Preparation. At this stage, an individual with an addiction commits to overcoming it and begins preparations for treatment. This may involve taking a pledge of abstinence, examining available resources for recovery, joining a rehabilitation program, or any combination of these. While the individual may still feel some ambivalence about the decision, he or she is likely to proceed. - Action. This is when modifications to behaviors and surroundings that facilitate substance use occur, which for many people includes time at an accredited rehabilitation facility. The longest of these five stages, it also requires the most effort for establishing a foundation for sobriety moving forward in life. - Maintenance. Commencing after the action stage, maintenance involves actively practicing sobriety and avoiding habits and decisions that can lead to relapse. This requires perseverance and can be a challenging step for many people who recover from addiction, especially for those who return home to situations that originally prompted their substance use. Thomas Stoughton leverages more than three decades of experience to his role as an Indiana business consultant. His clients have included major businesses and nonprofit organizations across Indiana. Thomas Stoughton was additionally instrumental in creating the Center for Successful Parenting, designed to provide information on the harmful effects of media violence.
Notable research carried out on behalf of the center includes that by a research team associated with the Indiana University School of Medicine. As presented at a 2011 meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the researchers found that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of the brains of young adult males showed that long-term engagement with violent video games is associated with changes in emotional and neurological functioning. Indiana University has conducted multiple ongoing studies of the effects of violence in media. This particular study was the first to demonstrate a direct relationship between participation in playing a violent video game and measurable deficits in the brain. The test subject group consisted of more than two dozen healthy young men in their late teens and 20s. None of them had had previous significant encounters with violent video games. After half the group spent a week playing a shooter-style video game at home, the fMRI scans of their brains showed impairment in the regions responsible for executive-level functioning, cognitive plasticity, emotional self-control, and focused attention. This was in marked contrast to not only the control group, but also the test group after they had refrained from playing the game. |
AuthorThomas Stoughton - Former President of BCI in Indianapolis, Indiana. Archives
May 2019
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