Learning for Life provides programs that are designed to support schools and other youth-serving organizations in their efforts toward preparing youth to successfully handle the complexities of today's society and to enhance their self-confidence, motivation, and self-worth. Learning for Life also helps youth develop social and life skills, assists in  character development, and helps them formulate positive personal values.

Learning for Life is a classroom-based program that provides an action-learning process with grade-specific lesson plans for grades K-12, plus a complete supplement for special-needs students.

Learning for Life is an educational program designed to meet the needs of youth and schools. It helps youth meet the challenge of growing up by teaching character and good decision-making skills and then linking those skills to the real world.

Developed by professional educators and child-development experts, the Learning for Life curriculum has three basic components: school-based learning, connecting activities, and work-based learning. Combined, these components provide a structure through which youth learn the value of respect and responsibility while discovering a world of career opportunities.

Special Needs Program
Because of the various forms and levels of disabilities that schools encounter, the Learning for Life special-needs curriculum is sometimes supplemented with the elementary, seventh- and eighth-grade, and senior high school Learning for Life program materials. In this way, Learning for Life is tailored to fit the needs of each individual class and youth and is certain to be age appropriate.
The special-needs curriculum teaches youth with disabilities the life skills they need to achieve self-sufficiency. The program focuses on and enhances coping skills. Areas covered include the following:

• Self-concept. Youth develop an awareness of personal, social, and civic responsibility.
• Personal/social skills. Youth learn ways in which emotions affect the behavior of self and others.

Life skills. Youth are taught basic skills for independent living, such as personal hygiene, meal preparation, and job preparedness training.

Lesson plans feature themes such as:

• Accepting Consequences
• Conservation
• Ethnic Heritage
• Meeting Deadlines
• Gangs
• Never Give Up
• What Is Freedom?
• Respecting Differences
• Violence Prevention
• Sticking to What's Right

7th and 8th Grade Program
The seventh- and eighth-grade program is for seventh- and eighth-grade youth and begins Learning for Life's career preparedness emphasis.

The Learning for Life 7th and 8th grade program is designed to provide community role models to motivate and interact with the youth. Role models meet with a specific class (e.g., English, social studies, math) and discuss the relationship of that subject to a work situation.
These role models, with backgrounds similar to those of the youth, share their personal paths to success, including the pitfalls and the high points. Resource people from the community serve as mentors and role models and give the youth insight into personal decisions, educational goals, and career choices.
Youth learn to ascertain the need for having a job and being employed, to recognize obstacles, how to make mature and ethical decisions, and how to deal responsibly with their decisions.

The Learning for Life 7th and 8th grade program is also a series of 50 interactive workshops
that help youth develop and assess the personal skills and values needed to make future career
choices.

Senior High Program
The senior high school program continues Learning for Life's school-to-career emphasis and is for 9th through 12th grade youth.

The program consists of two parts.

• The first is a series of interactive workshops that teach the practical skills necessary to acquire a job and stay employed. Topics include Job Applications and Writing Résumés, Job Interviews, Employer and Labor Relations, Money Management, Where to Find a Job, Women in the Workforce, and Ethics in the Workforce.
• The second part of the high school program is a series of career seminars presented by community representatives. The seminars cover careers that the students have chosen to learn more about. Students get in-depth understanding and firsthand knowledge of their career area, including entry-level requirements, special training needed, important academic disciplines that must be mastered, typical working conditions, promotion opportunities, and other relevant information to help them prepare for the real world of work.

By linking these classroom-based seminars to the worksite-based Exploring program, high schools can help youth make the school-to-careers transition a reality.
 

For additional information about  Learning for Life  call Ken Kercheval at 731-668-3787  or check out the website at: www.learning-for-life.org