Lions Quest

Skills for Adolescence

Skills for Adolescence (SFA) is based on highly targeted research of students in grades 6-8. Included are "Making Healthy Choices" units covering drug, alcohol and tobacco use; interactive, student-focused lessons; sessions on anger, conflict and stress management; and cross-curricular activities to encourage team-teaching. This extensive curriculum has been expanded to help students manage conflict and anger and to help teachers and administrators deal with the critical issue of bullying. Supplemental bullying prevention lessons, developed in 2009, can be found in the Curriculum Updates section of this Web site.

Our 40-session "Introduction to Skills" implementation model was proven effective by a rigorous evaluation study conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). However, we recommend the school-wide model as the optimum implementation model because the entire school community creates and sustains a shared vision for positive youth development. Similarly, we recommend the three-year models as our ideal models because they provide "booster lessons" and continuous practice that reinforce the skill-building potential throughout the middle school experience. When the three-year model is not possible, we have seen much success with the two-and one-year models as well.

All options, from one to three years, include one lesson per week taught as a 45-minute class or split into two 20-30 minutes classes. Three lessons per month are scheduled for a total of 30 lessons per school year. Unit coverage varies according to time frame. Visit Program Resources to view a variety of curriculum maps and state learning standards correlation guides.

Skills for Adolescence for Out-of-School Time - New!

Skills for Adolescence for Out-of-School Time (SFA for OST) was created to meet the unique demands of afterschool programs and community centers working with middle school youth. SFA for OST is comprised of 33 social and emotional learning lessons, five service-learning lessons, 116 reinforcement activities, and numerous relationship-centered learning community strategies and activities. These selections, from the Skills for Adolescence (SFA) curriculum, combined with newly-created implementation tools, provide OST staff with a positive youth development program that aligns with the six common elements of high-quality OST programming, recognized by researchers and practitioners as having the most influence on positive outcomes for young people. The SFA for OST program manual comes with the Changes and Challenges student book. An SFA for OST program supplement is available for those who already have the full SFA curriculum, and includes just the program guide and implementation tools. On-site, experiential training and a supportive webinar series complete the SFA for OST program options.

Central School District in O'Fallon, IL, is enjoying the results of Lions Quest implementation to reach social and emotional learning goals. During the Lions Quest professional development workshop, "The teachers gained a great deal of strategies that help with their own lives and their attitudes towards the students," explained Principal Dawn Elser. "A whole new culture has been created here. The number of referrals for disresprect has gone done tremendously. Teachers report that there is a lot less nit-picking among students and they are more patient with each other and more kind," she said. Read more about Central's success in Examples, under the Results tab.