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The On Guide Line
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The
NewStart Model of Life Skills
Life Skills are problem solving behaviours appropriately and
responsibly used in the management of personal affairs. Some basic lessons
are: Seeing Oneself on Video, Listening to Others, Describing Feelings,
Relating to Others, and Giving and Receiving Feedback.
The Saskatchewan NewStart
model of Life Skills was developed in the late sixties and early seventies in
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, as an initiative of the federal Department of
Manpower and Immigration. The intent was to design an effective system of
delivering adult basic education to disadvantaged populations. The designers - educators, psychologists
and counsellors - developed an experiential approach that incorporates
specific skills, a sequence of skill development and specific problem solving
systems. That approach has since been adapted to make the training relevant
to anyone wishing to develop and improve communication and problem solving
skills.
The Basic Life Skills Program
The delivery of each
topic is a five step process:
The Stimulus for a lesson is often provided through group discussion,
role play and brainstorming.
Evocation assists participants to describe their experiences in the
stimulus using behavioural descriptors and to share their knowledge about the
lesson objective.
Objective Inquiry/Skill Practice provides participants with a
detailed "how to" of the skill(s) to be learned and the opportunity
to practice the new skill(s) within the safe confines of the group.
Skill Application involves applying those new skills to an actual
situation.
Evaluation involves a de-briefing of the lesson with the group,
assisting students to identify skills they have mastered and those that need
continued improvement (what did you learn and how might you use it?).
The curriculum and its
delivery are designed to allow participants to build skills in a progressive
and planned manner. The skills learned when beginning the group provide a
foundation for subsequent learning and skill practice.
A major strength of the
program is development of group cohesiveness and consequent peer group
support. The group becomes the primary learning and support vehicle for the
participants. This ensures that when participants leave the program they have
developed a component of an ongoing and effective support network.
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