PART TWO: Facilitator’s Guide
T
he Facilitator’s Guide was developed for practitioners who need a concise, hands-on guide for understanding and how to work with children. Practitioners have asked for guidelines on how to plan, implement and evaluate a Life Skills Education Program. The Facilitator’s Guide helps practitioners to choose, adapt and develop their own life skills curriculum according to the needs of a particular group of children.SECTION ONE: Understanding
Life Skills
What are Life Skills?
• Approach to learning life skills. • A framework for life skills.
Why Children Need Life Skills?
• Life skills are critical for young people. • Life skills lead to behavior change.
• Life skills are more effective than traditional information-based programs.
• How life skills are learned. • Life skills are important in existing
programs.
How a participatory approach helps Life skills learning:
Lessons from Child-to-Child Programs
• Value of youth participation in programs.
SECTION TWO: DEVELOPING A
LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION
PROGRAM
Planning a Life Skills Education Program
• Understanding the needs of children. • What information is needed? • How to collect information. • Using data for planning. • Setting objectives and indicators. • Using the toolkit.
• Making an action plan.
• Organizational support structures. • Confidentiality.
• Ethical guidelines.
• Creating a supportive community environment. • Linking with other programs.
Implementation of a Life Skills Education Program
• Understanding participation. • How to enhance participation. • Approaches to active learning. • Linking learning to life. • Active methods of learning.
• Challenges in using participatory and active methods of learning.
• Selection and training of facilitators. • Changing community perceptions.
Evaluating a Life Skills Education Program
• Tools for evaluation.
• Who should conduct an evaluation? • What should be evaluated?
• Child participatory tools for assessment.
Next Steps
Life skills refers to a large group of psychosocial
and interpersonal skills that promotes mental well-
being and that leads to a healthy and productive life. Health is defined as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” (World Health Organization)
Life skills develop competencies and actual
behaviors. They result in personal actions, actions
directed to others and actions to change the surrounding environment in a healthy, safe way. There are many definitions of life skills. The World Health Organization (WHO, 1993) defines life skills as “the abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enables individuals to deal
effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.” WHO (1994) has also identified a core set of life skills for the promotion and well being of children and adolescents.
Core Life Skills
Problem-solving
Decision-making (including goal setting) Critical thinking
Creative thinking (including value clarification) Communication skills
Interpersonal skills (including assertiveness) Self-awareness
Empathy
Coping with stress Coping with emotions
Life skills are often categorized different ways. Whichever way life skills are categorized, they all address similar issues. Some of the classifications include:
• Communication, relationship and decision- making skills;
• Thinking, social and negotiation skills; and • Decision-making, interpersonal
communication, values, emotions, saying no, and our future.
These are referred to as generic life skills; they help people deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
Life skills are also applied to specific risk
situations to prevent health damaging behavior.
The selection and emphasis on particular skills will depend on the specific risk behavior. For example, in a HIV prevention program, decision-making is emphasized; in a care and support program with orphans, coping with emotions and stress is important. Emphasis does not mean choosing one life skill over another, as all life skills are important and interrelated.
Life skills are sometimes confused with skills such as finding a job, going to a police station or learning first aid. While these skills are important, they are not what are meant by life skills.
3 • LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA
Livelihood skills Daily living skills Learning skills Health skills Survival skills
Applying for a job Managing personal How to read and Brushing teeth How to seek
finances write police help
Managing time Preparing meals Arithmetic Correct and Where to go consistent use of in an emergency condoms
Work habits Banking Hobbies First aid Contacting help lines
Setting up a Going to the post Drawing and crafts Making oral Contacting the business office rehydration salts fire station
(ORS) Vocational skills Using transportation Learning about Road safety
human rights
Women’s self help Going to a health Making nutritious
groups center meals
APPROACH TO LEARNING LIFE SKILLS
Life skills are learned in special ways—the process
of learning life skills is as important as learning its content. In other words, the way life skills are
learned is as important as what is learned.
Experiential Methodology
Each life skills lesson builds on previous lessons and influences future lessons. In this way, the
learning of life skills is constantly reinforced. Developing new skills is initially difficult and requires a great deal of perseverance and support. Many practice sessions need to be set up to master a skill. In addition, each learner must have opportunities to receive feedback and reflect on how to improve their newly acquired skills. For example, learning to say no to drugs is not easy, and a young person will need to practice and gradually acquire competency by practicing the new skill in a variety of situations.
Experiential methods Examples
Young people learn skills in hypothetical or A role play on assertiveness in a practice life skills practice situations session
Skills are tried and tested in easy, Expressing thoughts clearly and taking turns in a low risk situations conversation with friends
Skills can next be tried in medium risk Rejecting an offer of help when it is not needed situations (risk of hurting another person’s feelings) Skills are applied in a high risk situation Saying no to drugs and resisting Peer pressure
A Child-centered Active Learning, Participatory Methodology
A variety of active learning methods are used in life skills practice—games, role play, brainstorming, debates, drama, story telling, group learning, case studies, making posters and others. These methods clearly separate Life Skills Education Programs from information dissemination programs that may only focus on teaching the facts of life. In this way learning is not passive. Active methods lead to active learning.
Young people are involved right from the beginning in assessing their needs and participating in their
skill development. The life skills approach recognizes the rights of young persons and respects them as individuals. The Life Skills Education Program works with children, not for children. In this way, young people become responsible for their actions. The child-to-child approach to learning is a useful method for teaching life skills. It uses a practical methodology that not only promotes children’s participation but also helps to link learning to life itself. The child-to-child approach is described in detail in the next section.3
A number of active learning methods and child-to-child concepts help develop life skills.4
3See section on ‘How A Participatory Approach Helps Life Skills Learning: Lessons from the Child-to-Child Programs’ 4Adapted from Hawes, Hugh, Skills Based Health Education, UNESCO, 2005
Life skills are learned through:
Life Skill Expression of skill
Self awareness and Drawing and writing about oneself; taking responsibility for various self esteem activities
Assertiveness Role play, mime and drama are very helpful. Group rules are useful for group participation as well as to argue one’s point of view Coping with stress and Drawing to express emotions, helping each other in distress, writing emotion poems and stories of ‘I feel’
Interpersonal relationships Doing group work or in pairs such as on joint projects or pictures or stories, helping each other, participating in committees
Empathy Role play, discussion, understanding different points of view, using what if…’ situations
Communication Opportunities to express, speak – verbal and non-verbal; role play, art Critical Thinking Review the work done, ask questions – what happened, why, who, how Creative Thinking Write or finish stories, think of hypothetical situations and solutions,
role play
Decision making Games in groups, discussion based on real, hypothetical or role play situations, providing opportunities to take decisions
5 • LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA
Build a Supportive Environment Inside (Learning Sessions) and Outside (Surrounding Community)
Life skills have to be practiced and reinforced. Educators and facilitators must build trust and provide a non-threatening environment. Because life skills leads to behavior change in real life situations, the surrounding community also needs to be sensitized so that they can reinforce the positive behavior of children.
A FRAMEWORK FOR LIFE SKILLS
This toolkit uses the life skills definition by World Health Organization (WHO) for its guiding framework. The practice of these life skills leads to behavior change. The toolkit is also shaped by two additional factors: (1) The complexity of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the need to address both prevention and care, and (2) The need to address the varied and diverse needs of children who are vulnerable, affected and infected by HIV/AIDS.
Types of Life Skills
Communication and interpersonal skills
Decision making and critical thinking skills
Coping and self-management skills
• Interpersonal Communication Skills - Verbal/nonverbal
communication
- Active listening-Expressing feelings, giving feedback (without blaming) and receiving feedback
- Negotiation
- Negotiation and conflict management
- Assertiveness skills - Refusal skills • Empathy Building
- Ability to listen, understand another’s needs and circumstances and express that understanding • Cooperation and Teamwork
- Expressing respect for others’ contributions and different styles - Assessing one’s own abilities
and contributing to the group • Advocacy Skills
- Influencing skills and persuasion
- Networking and motivation skills • Decision-making/ Problem-solving Skills - Information-gathering skills - Evaluating future consequences of present actions for self and others - Determining alternative
solutions to problems - Using analysis skills to
determine the influence of values and attitudes about self and others • Critical Thinking Skills
- Analyzing peer and media influences
- Analyzing attitudes, values, social norms, beliefs and factors affecting them - Identifying relevant
information and sources of information
• Skills for increasing personal confidence and ability to assume control, take responsibility, make a difference or bring about change
- Building self-esteem/ confidence
- Creating self-awareness skills, including awareness of rights, influences, values, attitudes,
strengths and weaknesses - Setting goals
- Self-evaluation/self- assessment
self-monitoring skills • Skills for Managing Feelings
- Managing anger - Dealing with grief and
anxiety
- Coping with loss, abuse and trauma
• Skills for Managing Stress - Time management - Positive thinking - Relaxation techniques
This framework for life skills can be adapted according to the specific needs of the program. The following example illustrates how a school-based Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Program adapted the framework.5 The
program identified the life skills and behavior changes expected from the students.
EXAMPLE: Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention School Program
Students observe and practice ways to develop the following skills:
5 Skills for Health, Pg 14, WHO Information Series on School Health Document 9
Communication skills – Effectively express desire to abstain or have safe sex. – Influence others to
abstain from sex or practice safe sex using condoms if they cannot be influenced to abstain from sex. – Demonstrate support
for the prevention of discrimination related to HIV/AIDS
Advocacy skills
– Present arguments for access to sexual and reproductive health information, services and counseling for young people
Negotiation/refusal skills – Refuse sexual
intercourse or negotiate the use of condoms
Decision-making skills – Seek and find reliable
sources of information about human anatomy, puberty, conception and pregnancy, STIs, HIV/AIDS, and local prevalence rates and available methods of contraception
– Analyze potential situations for sexual interaction and determine actions to take and their potential consequences
Critical thinking skills – Analyze myths and
misconceptions perpetuated by the media about HIV/AIDS, contraceptives, gender roles, and body image
– Analyze socio-cultural influences regarding sexual behaviors
Interpersonal skills
– Show interest in and listen actively to others
– Behave caring and compassionately when interacting with someone who is infected with HIV
Skills for managing stress – Seek services for help
with reproductive and sexual health issues including, contraception, condoms to prevent HIV or unplanned pregnancy, sexual abuse, exploitation, discrimination, gender- based violence or other emotional trauma
Skills for increasing personal confidence
– Abilities to assume control, take responsibility, make a difference or bring about change
– Assert personal values when encountering peer-related and other social pressures
7 • LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA