Promoting Life Skills in Middle School Youth

The purpose of Kentucky's Sustainable Community Project is to provide educational life skills programs for middle school youth. The primary goal of the project is for middle school youth of the target counties to exhibit an increase in the number oflife skills and developmental assets they possess, assuring increased health, happiness, and contribution to their communities. Short term objectives include increased awareness and understanding of critical life skills; increased community collaborations; and opportunities for youth to engage in program planning and evaluation processes. Long term objectives include improved confidence in applying life skills learned; increased application of life skills, developmental assets, leadership opportunities, and youth-adult partnerships; and youth serving as local leaders with other community organizations. Data will be collected using a multi-methods approach (surveys, interviews, community records, online data, observation) to assess whether the program is meeting long term goals. The national program model to be utilized by this project is the Iowa State University's Targeting Life Skills Model. The audience is middle school youth in sixth through eighth grades at four schools in Fleming and Lawrence counties. Both of these counties are located in Eastern Kentucky (Appalachia). A core group of approximately 35 youth per county will be the focus for evaluation purposes in life skills development, particularly in the areas of leadership and community engagement. The national CYF AR outcome to be addressed through this project is School Age. According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0524-0039. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average .50 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information.