Integrating Well-being and Life Skills in Your Afterschool Program
Well-being has become fundamental to learning, thriving, and succeeding in life. Well-being is cultivated through the strengthening of resiliency and life skills. Studies show that when youth name, notice and reflect on their experiences, thought and emotion processes, behaviors and social interactions in a positive and inclusive environment, they are better equipped to proactively respond to challenging life situations, more ready to learn and better able to perform in educational and work settings.
Prime Time Palm Beach County’s Well-being and Life Skills Initiative is an innovative professional learning opportunity designed to build resiliency and life skills among children and youth in afterschool based on best practices in the field and in alignment with national and state health and resiliency standards. This new initiative is focused on building an afterschool climate and culture whereby youth thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially, succeed in academic and extracurricular endeavors, build more positive and productive relationships, and engage in acts of kindness and service to others.
To this end, enrolled staff will undergo resiliency and life skills professional learning journey comprised of eight trainings supported by coaching. In each training session, participants incrementally practice and build crucial skills, from self-awareness and self-management to empathy and compassion as well as gratitude and service to others. Learning happens through simulations of Afternoon Meeting components, behind-the-scenes analysis on how to build community and teach resiliency and life skills to youth in creative and fun ways, real-time peer facilitation of Afternoon Meeting using sample lessons, and planning time with templates to build customized Afternoon Meeting lessons.
What is Afternoon Meeting?
The Afternoon Meeting is the out-of-school time complement to the Morning Meeting that helps to ensure continued well-being and life skills are being built with a 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. focus. Morning/Afternoon Meeting is an interactive group practice that teaches explicit well-being and life skills to youth. The Afternoon Meeting, like the Morning Meeting, entails an intentional circle gathering where the adult models and facilitates four activity segments, namely, the Greeting, the Sharing, the Activity and the Message.
Each segment is designed to:
- incrementally build positive adult-youth and youth-youth communication and interaction,
engage youth in positive behavior, - provide opportunities for adult and youth to builld well-being and life skills,
- promote equity by giving youth voice and choice during meeting activities, and
- create explicit connections between well-being and life skills and academic learning.
The Afternoon Meeting also provides an opportunity to apply signature Well-being and Life Skill practices that teach youth how to transition their hearts and minds from one activity to another so that these practice may become more integrated across the out-of-school time program.
Register for Well-being and Life Skills Training Series
This fall we are excited to offer the Prime Time Well-being and Life Skills Initiative to out-of-school time programs, drawing on best practice from the field and integrating the Florida state health and resiliency standards.
Participating programs will receive:
- specialized professional learning and coaching supports to explicitly embody and model adult well-being and teach youth resiliency and life skills to K-8 groups in afterschool,
- two in-person observations and on-demand coaching to successfully integrate well-being and life skills in your daily routine,
- Resilient Leadership Academy with advanced cross-site community of practice peer problem-solving labs for successful ongoing implementation
- Well-being and Life Skills resource bag with Afternoon Meeting curricula, lesson-planning to
- training stipends and up to 2.1 CEUs upon successful completion of training.
Schedule
- Part 1 – September 19, 2023
- Part 2 – September 26, 2023
- Part 3 – October 3, 2023
- Part 4 – October 10, 2023
- Part 5 – October 17, 2023
- Part 6 – October 24, 2023
- Part 7 – October 31, 2023
- Part 8 – November 14, 2023
Resilient Leadership Academy (Designed for Directors and Assistant Directors only)
Session 1 – September 13, 2023
Session 2 - November 29, 2023
*Prerequisite: Resiliency and Life Skills Basics self-paced online training, completed by October 17, 2023.
Contact
knellee bisram
Professional Development Specialist
561-244-5119
kbisram@primetimepc.org
Resiliency and Life Skills Basics Onboarding – SELF PACED
12/05/2023 – 12/12/2023 @ 12:00 am – What do Resiliency and Life Skills really mean? In this self-paced virtual training, participants will be able to develop a foundational understanding of resiliency and life skills, including an introduction to common language and structures used in state and national frameworks to guide effective implementation in OST settings. Participants also reflect upon why resiliency and […]
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Resiliency and Life Skills Basics Onboarding – SELF PACED
11/07/2023 – 11/14/2023 @ 12:00 am – What do Resiliency and Life Skills really mean? In this self-paced virtual training, participants will be able to develop a foundational understanding of resiliency and life skills, including an introduction to common language and structures used in state and national frameworks to guide effective implementation in OST settings. Participants also reflect upon why resiliency and […]
Read More
Resiliency and Life Skills Basics Onboarding – SELF-PACED
10/03/2023 – 10/10/2023 @ 12:00 am – What do Resiliency and Life Skills really mean? In this self-paced virtual training, participants will be able to develop a foundational understanding of resiliency and life skills, including an introduction to common language and structures used in state and national frameworks to guide effective implementation in OST settings. Participants also reflect upon why resiliency and […]
Read More