Promoting Personal Growth in Young People Experiencing Homelessness Through an Outdoors-Based Program

Outdoors-based youth development programs demonstrate the efficacy to improve indicators of personal growth and mental health in a range of disadvantaged young people. However, the most marginalized young people in society, who stand to benefit the most from such initiatives, remain underrepresented in the research. My Strengths Training for Life (MST4Life) is a positive youth development (PYD) intervention for young people experiencing homelessness that incorporates a life skills program and an outdoor adventure education (OAE) course. The current study presents a qualitative investigation of the OAE course to understand its role in promoting positive changes for participants. Reflexive thematic analysis led to the development of inductively driven themes which were conceptualized based on relevant theories (e.g., relational developmental systems) and models (e.g., 5 Cs of PYD). Findings highlight the benefits of a preceding life skills program to psychologically prepare participants to thrive in the unfamiliar setting of the outdoors and related challenges. During the course, adaptive developmental regulations supported participants’ basic psychological needs and fostered personal growth. Improvements in social competence was a common theme across participants and played a pivotal role in facilitating balanced development across the 5 Cs. In addition, experiences during the course promoted indicators of mental health and intentions to make positive lifestyle changes. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to making outdoors-based youth development courses more accessible for marginalized young people, as well as how OAE and PYD programs can add value to the youth homeless sector.

Development of Life Skills Program for Primary School Students: Focus on Entry Programming

There are areas where the competencies obtained through computer coding activities substantially overlap with life skills components. Studies of these common competencies have suggested the possibility of including these contents in a life skills program. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a program through the Entry program that elementary school students could use online to improve their life skills, given the need to increase contactless online classes due to COVID-19. Eight elementary school teachers with 20 years of experience and two curriculum experts participated in the program’s development. For data collection, 360 data points were collected from eight elementary schools located in each Korean province, including urban and rural areas. SPSS 21.0 was used to analyze the data. Upon completing the 8-week program, the difference in life skills between groups was confirmed using variance analysis based on the number of implementation times, and post-hoc testing was conducted. The study’s results confirmed the difference between the groups conducted for two weeks (M = 3.22), four weeks (M = 3.25), and six weeks (M = 3.67), and the group conducted for eight weeks (M = 3.83). In other words, as the number of weeks of participation in the life skills program increased, there was a difference between groups. These findings suggest a life skills program could be included as part of Entry based computer coding activities for elementary school students through a backward curriculum. In conclusion, this study showed the possibility of using contactless online classes with free Entry-based websites to improve the life skills of elementary school students struggling at home due to COVID-19. It also showed that each elementary school teacher could operate the life skills programs as a contactless learning method using a free coding platform and manual.

LIFE SKILLS PROGRAM MANAGEMENT IN IMPROVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

This Study at Al Baqiyatus Shalihat Islamic Boarding School in West Tanjung Jabung Regency, Karya Pembangunan Al-Hidayah Islamic Boarding School in Jambi City and Al-Munawaroh Boarding School in Merangin Regency Jambi Province. Life Skills Program are a group of skills program that include social skill, personal skill, academic skill and vocational skill. These skills are taught at Islamic boarding schools to equip students to live independently and have Islamic entrepreneurial behavior in the face of the development and progress of the times. The purpose of this study was to determine the management life skills program to improve the behavior of students in entrepreneurship, the excellence of managing life skills program that have been implemented by Islamic Boarding Schools and determined the behavior of students in entrepreneurship. The research approach is used to descriptive qualitative approach. Data collection techniques using observation, interview and documentation. Data analysis using Miles and Huberman models and data validity techniques using data triangulation.